'I've learned how to love sales people' says internet founder
You need to convince people to back your projects
Cerf's up on sales people
People who want to be successful technologists have to learn how to become salesperson, according to one of the men who founded the internet.
Speaking at the O2 Campus Party, Cerf admitted that he'd previously had very little time for people who could talk the talk, but that he had learned over the years how important it was to convince others of a project's worth.
"You have to work out how to be a salesman," he said. "I used to think salesmen were this terrible thing, but now I understand that sales and marketing is about getting everyone else to do you want them to.
"So we need to get in front of these young people - people who have been successful at science and technology and are excited about it and have made a difference and make them realise that this kind of thing can make a world-shaking impact."
Next big thing
Cerf believes that people need to stop worrying about inventing the next big thing and focus on fixing something that is wrong.
"Now I have to tell you we didn't start out to have this big impact - we started out trying to solve a problem," he added.
"You don't start out by saying 'I'm going to change the world', the right thing to do is start out and say 'I'm going to solve this problem' and if you solve it successfully you go to the next step and the next step and so on."
Xbox One pre-order guide: Prices, game bundles and where you can get them
UPDATED Xbox One pre-orders are a little easier than the PS4
Want info on how to pre-order the Xbox One? Look no further
Microsoft rolls out the Xbox One in the UK on November 22 - a week before Sony's PlayStation 4. Both will run games like Watch Dogs, Destiny and Battlefield 4. But based on pre-orders, the PS4 is proving to be the more popular machine.
But that's good news if you want an Xbox One for launch day and haven't got around to ordering it yet. While the PS4is close to being sold out everywhere in the UK, there's still time to grab a third-generation Xbox with a couple of tasty games and have it delivered in a fetching green box on November 22.
Like most console launches, buying options range from the big websites like Amazon and Tesco Direct to indie sellers like simplygames.com. On its own, the Xbox One has an RRP of £429.99, but bundles are available that can jack this price up as high as £550 for a console, a free game, an extra wireless controller and a 12-month subscription to Xbox Live.
We've rounded up all of the current deals in this article, which we'll keep updating so you know just where to get the best deal on an Xbox One.
Officially out of stock until December
Just as the Sony store is fresh out of PS4s for launch day on November 29, so the Microsoft Store has sold out of Xbox One Day Edition consoles. The Xbox One Day One Edition including a copy of FIFA 14 is no longer available for preorder and standard Xbox One packs now show a release date of December 31.
What's a Day One Edition? It includes everything that a basic Xbox One bundle does - the console, Kinect sensor, power supply, Xbox One controller, headset and a 4K-rated HDMI 1.4 cable. But it comes in premium black packaging, offers a limited edition Xbox One Day One controller (with a chrome D-pad) and a Day One Achievement.
The original Day One Edition bundle also included a free digital version of EA's FIFA 14 as standard, although this has recently been replaced by a free copy of Forza 5. If you get a choice, the Day One Edition is the bundle to go for and there are still some available if you know where to find them.
Launch day pre-orders still available
The Microsoft Store might be sold out of Xbox One consoles, but there are plenty of other options. As of September 15, Tesco Direct has an Xbox One Day One Edition Console for £429 with Forza 5 still showing in stock and with the promise of a launch day delivery.
Argos has a Day One Edition Xbox One offer with a digital copy of FIFA 14 for £429 and promises "hassle free home delivery on Xbox One launch day on 22 November 2013." Currys/PC World is also selling a Day One Edition that comes with Forza 5. As of September 15, it's priced at £429 and there's pre-order stock available.
Toys R Us is the cheapest (for now)
While the Xbox One Forza 5 pack (£429.99) and the FIFA 14 pack (£419.99) are no longer available, Toys R Us is selling the basic console for a discounted price of £419.99. It doesn't make clear that pre-orders will be delivered on launch day, but it doesn't say that they won't. Orders are restricted to two consoles per customer.
Check out the bundles on simplygames.com
The Xbox One bundles on simplygames.com start at £429.99 for the standard Xbox One and rise to £489.98 when a game is included (either Forza 5 or Dead Rising 3). The website shows all of these bundles are available for pre-order and delivery on launch day, including the £539.97 pack that features an Xbox One with Forza 5 and an extra wireless controller.
Shopto.net also has a variety of Xbox One bundles
While PS4 orders for launch day had a cut-off date of August 6, the supply of Xbox Ones is still relatively plentiful. This might be because buyers view the PS4 as technically superior to Microsoft's console or it might just come down to price. The £349 PS4 is £80 cheaper. But then again, every Xbox One ships with a Kinect.
An Xbox One Day One Edition Console with Ryse plus a Play and Charge Kit is a tenner cheaper at £489.85. Ditto an Xbox One Day One Edition Console with Battlefield 4 and £15-worth of Xbox Live points.
Pricier bundles are also available. An Xbox One Day One Edition Console with Forza 5 and an extra wireless controller is priced at £516.85; the same console with Dead Rising 3, 12 months of Xbox Live access and £15-worth of points is £519.85.
Pricier still is the £526.85 Xbox One Day One Edition Console that comes with Dead Rising 3, Ryse and £10 of Xbox Live points. While £549.85 buys you the same Day One Edition console with Ryse, a year's Xbox Live subscription and an extra wireless controller.
Want one? Shopto.net urges you to order "before 12pm on Wednesday 20th of November 2013 to receive [your Xbox One] by the release date of Friday." Sounds like they don't anticipate a last-minute rush on those £500+ bundles.
Amazon has sold out
Unsurprisingly, Amazon has sold out its initial £429 Xbox One allocation and the message for would-be buyers is that "orders placed for this Xbox One Standard Edition console from August 15 will be received after release date." It just doesn't give a hint of when that might be.
Other retailers that can't guarantee an Xbox One for launch day include Zavvi, which says that any orders for the £428.95 machine processed after August 19 may be received after the Xbox One's release date. Note the 'may' in that previous sentence, not 'will'.
Asda's cut-off date was a little later - September 11. So if you pre-ordered a £429 Xbox One from its website after that date, you might not receive it on day one. But there is the prospect of a £20 discount code if you slap down a £20 deposit. That potentially puts the Asda price at a more attractive £409.
Game over at Game and Gamestop
Over at Game, the Xbox One is no longer guaranteed for launch either. If you're prepared to wait, there are two versions - a £429.99 standalone console and an exclusive £459.99 bundle that comes with Call of Duty: Ghosts. Both require a £20 deposit.
Finally, the £429.97 Xbox One offer at Gamestop has been and gone. Unless you pre-ordered before September 5, you'll need to join a waiting list to reserve one of the second wave machines. These will arrive at an unspecified point after the November 22 launch day. Only Microsoft knows when.
The overall picture
Where the PS4 is sold out almost everywhere online, you can still get an Xbox One delivered to you on launch day from at least half of the UK retailers we've looked at. This might be because Microsoft's console is less popular than the PS4 or because it's £80 more expensive. Or Microsoft might have put more units out to satisfy what it hopes is a huge demand for the new console.
If you still want to pre-order, there are still a few Day One Edition console bundles waiting to be snapped up. Microsoft originally offered FIFA 14 with European pre-orders, but the availability was limited. Other Day One Editions are shipping with Forza 5. Miss out on a Day One Edition and you don't get a free game.
Our advice: keep an eye on this page - we'll update it if things change and fresh stock hits retailers. You can also track day-to-day Xbox One availability via the handy Stock Informer website.
Rockstar miffed as Amazon delivers some GTA V discs four days early
Christmas comes early for some GTA fans
Rockstar is investigating a reported shipping error from Amazon, which has seen some customers receive their copies of Grand Theft Auto V, four days before the September 17 release date.
The most anticipated game of 2013 turned up in the mailbox of some lucky customers on Saturday, with the game not hitting stores until Tuesday.
Pictures posted online over the weekend showed an unopened version of the game along with the shipping documents from Amazon.
In a statement given to GamesIndustry, Rockstar said: "We are in the process of investigating early 'sales' to determine how and why that is occurring."
Revolt
Amazon, of course, is used to shipping items early to ensure they're received on the actual launch date, but this is a very strange anomaly, given the high profile nature of this launch.
GamesIndustry speculates that the incident will upset brick and mortar gaming stores, who may even begin selling the game early as a result. We could have a revolt on our hands come Monday morning.
Re-Kindling the Fire: Leaked press shot suggests new Amazon tablet is close
That @evleaks bloke is at it again
Is this the new Kindle Fire?
The launch of a new Amazon Kindle Fire tablet is probably just around the corner, judging by an official-looking press render, which appeared online this weekend.
The leak, from the super-prolific @evleaks Twitter account, shows what looks to be a refreshed version of the 7-inch Amazon Kindle Fire, rather than the HD version.
The render, which does not showcase a front-facing camera on the device, was posted along with the simple message "Another upcoming Kindle," on Sunday.
Recent reports and leaks have pointed to an upcoming Kindle Fire refresh, with rumours suggesting there could be three new devices on the way before the end of the year.
Expectations
Expectations are that the devices will be launched in September or October - a year from the outing of the current generation, and in plenty of time for the Christmas rush.
The HD version(s) of the device is expected to pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor plus an Adreno 330 graphics chip. Speculation also mentions a memory bump to 2GB RAM.
Naturally, you'll be the first to know when anything official goes down.
It's been two years since the launch of Siri and since this time the service has managed to rise from being a gimmick to, well, a much-improved gimmick.
Now it seems that the service has freed itself from its beta shackles with the upcoming launch of iOS 7.
Spotted by 9to5Mac, the blurb for Siri on Apple's official page has been altered so that the words 'beta only' are nowhere to be seen.
Beta banned
It now reads: "Siri is available on iPhone 4s or later, iPad with Retina display, iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation) and requires Internet access. Siri may not be available in all languages or in all areas, and features may vary by area. Cellular data charges may apply."
As well as this, Apple has removed its FAQs for the service - presumably you now have to ask Siri how to do things, rather than looking on a website.
Siri has been given something of an overhaul for iOS 7. As well as improved voices, you can now ask it a number of new things, such as "play my last voicemail", "turn on Bluetooth" and "increase my brightness".
The integration of iOS in cars will also see Siri pop up in a number of vehicles in the near future. Which we are more than happy with - as long as Siri responds when we call it KIT.
Experience Xperia Z1 from Sony – the waterproof smartphone that's designed for quality photos
The Sony Xperia Z1: the best of Sony in a smartphone
Sony has just introduced the superb Xperia Z1 – combining the very best of Sony in a smartphone designed to help you take better photos than you've ever taken with any other phone.
Launching this month, Xperia Z1 is a beautifully designed, 5-inch Android smartphone that's waterproof and features true compact camera performance thanks to the powerful 20.7 megapixel Exmor RS CMOS image sensor, BIONZ for mobile image processing engine and Sony's award-winning G-Lens with a 27mm wide angle for stunning photographs.
And that's before you get to the stunning 5-inch display, which is powered Sony's BRAVIA TV technology in addition to Sony's Triluminos Display for mobile. Triluminos is designed to display more natural colours on your phone for a more lifelike and natural user experience.
The Xperia Z1 also includes X-Reality for super-sharp video. It's Sony's intelligent tech that analyses each frame and improves the quality to deliver super sharp playback.
And you won't be struggling for sound quality, either: Sony's ClearAudio+ draws on Sony's audio expertise and automatically adjusts audio settings for best effect.
And if music and movies float your boat, then Sony's Walkman music and Movies applications are also included with the Xperia Z1 – with Sony's Music Unlimited you'll have access to more than 22 million songs via the Walkman app and more than 150,000 movies and TV series on the Movies app with Video Unlimited from Sony Entertainment Network.
If you love TV, TrackID TV is a new app that enables you to search, share and explore cast information, filmography and series details, related Tweets and more.
And your precious photos are protected with the Xperia Z1 since you can auto-upload them to the cloud. That means they'll always be backed up online as there's unlimited storage – PlayMemories Online's All Sync feature is integrated alongside the Xperia Z1's Album application that shows off all your digital photos.
If architects are the unsung heroes of the modern world, spare an extra special thought for Aaron Garbut. Since Grand Theft Auto 3, Rockstar North's art director has been creating virtual playgrounds that aren't just ambitious, but which often resonate as much as their real-world inspirations.
Now hoards of gamers are about to descend on the latest fruit of Rockstar's labours, Grand Theft Auto 5, and are set to experience an open world environment that's more daring than anything the series has attempted before.
"I've always been proud of the worlds we've built, but this one really is on another level all together," Garbut tells us. "I think the immersive thing is that, as large and detailed as it is, it always has more to give.
"There's always new things to see, and layers of detail on the ambient life that really makes it feel like there's stuff going on without you. It's a world with which you interact and exist, it doesn't feel like a facade that's created around you."
Swooping in over Los Santos, you can really appreciate the city's scale
And don't we just know it. Having dipped our toes into the San Andreas waters ourselves we're ready to take the plunge. This is a very different place to the one we visited with CJ back in 2004. It's richer, more vibrant, and in many ways never-ending.
From facing off sharks on the ocean floor to taking in the view from the peak of Mount Chiliad, Rockstar wants us to not only experience San Andreas this time, but breathe it.
"All the little lights you see in the far distance are real, you can drive towards them and find the bulb that casts the light"
But despite a lot of speculation that the game would arrive for the dawn of the PS4 and Xbox One, GTA 5's release on the current generation left the question of how much Rockstar could possibly wring out of the existing systems. Would there be anything left after GTA 4, Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3?
"Technologically the biggest achievement has been squeezing this all into the console's memory and making it run as smoothly as it does," says Garbut.
"I think it's pretty staggering that you can be in a jet flying fast and high above the clouds, looking past the mountains to the city below you and then hit eject and parachute out over the map, seeing the world sprawled out beneath you and knowing the level of detail that exists across everything you can see."
Engines for engines
GTA hasn't just got bigger either - it's evolved in almost every other aspect too. "Everything is so much further on than it used to be," Garbut tells us. Grand Theft Auto 4 may have been the first of the series to take RAGE (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine) for a spin, but it was also in its infancy.
Over the past five years the entire engine and its mechanics have been fine-tuned to point that it's "effectively become the new RAGE," according to Garbut.
GTA 5 isn't just bigger: it's expanded and enhanced in every possible way
"Originally RAGE was a set of components - a basic rendering engine, a physics engine and the like. It was never a game engine. When we started Grand Theft Auto 4, RAGE was a toolset that gave us the basics for a rendering engine and a physics engine that we were able to build on."
"Over the past five years through 5's development, they have evolved, standardised and generalised the GTA engine," he says.
"Now, since Max Payne 3, we have a standardised full game engine across all titles at Rockstar. This is amazing since it gives all our games the same building blocks to pick and choose from, and it means all our artists are familiar with the same toolset.
"It's so much more than what RAGE originally was or what Renderware was for us in the past. This is effectively a finished game that we then build on and steer towards each title's needs."
An overhauled engine means every part of the game is improved and refined
"We can stream far more and compress far more into memory, meaning orders of magnitude more detail than we had in 4," adds Garbut. "The graphics engine has been overhauled, which gives us much better rendering of characters, vehicles and the world as a whole."
Waterworld
"The thing I want people to see most is the scale, to fly over the city in a jet, to look over the countryside from the top of a mountain as the sun goes down."
Considering the sheer size of the map, the level of detail that RAGE affords in GTA 5 is hugely impressive. While not a whole generation away from number 4, time has taught the technology how to squeeze every last drop from the current gen.
"The water has moved forward massively, and we have a far more accurate lighting model and generally a far better lighting system, both in terms of quality and quantity," says Garbut. "We render more lights and we render them much, much further."
"Our weather systems are far in advance of what we've had in the past, building on the cloud systems and rain systems from Red Dead Redemption. If you look at a night based screenshot, all the little lights you see in the far distance are real, you can drive towards them and find the bulb that casts the light.
"The animation system is amazing. It's able to blend in so many actions incredibly smoothly to give us a really rich movement across all characters. It also utilises the streaming improvements to give us huge amounts of variety and specific actions, allowing us to seamlessly blend in and out of cutscenes. They stop being interruptions to play, so you feel much more connected to the story."
A viewpoint-switching heist mission builds on the much loved Three Leaf Clover from GTA 4
A perfect example is in one of the game's earlier missions, Three's Company, a cinematic heist that requires players to switch between Michael, Franklin and Trevor.
The three-way dynamic is one important way GTA V has evolved from its predecessors, while packing the game with more heist missions was response to gamers' love for GTA 4's Three Leaf Clover. Go back and play that mission now and there's an odd sense of foreshadowing.
