Ouya Update 1.0.309

The Ouya team pushed a small update today that fixed a update loop when updating apps and games.

"1.0.309 update on June 17th fixes the issue where you could get stuck in an update loop when downloading game/app updates."

We have seen a number of people complaining about this all over the web so its nice to see a quick patch to get this fixed.  Thanks Ouya team!

via Ouya Announcements 

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Ouya Receives 2013 Award From Core77

Ouya has been recognized Core77 Design Awards for "Interactive multimedia and user interface design for websites, mobile devices and experiential installations."  

If you don't know about Core77, they give awards by "Recognizing excellence in all areas of design enterprise, the Core77 Design Awards celebrates the richness of the design profession and the brilliance of its practitioners."

The awards are issued by a panel of industry authorities, which defiately gives it some major clout.  When you get their attention its a pretty cool thing and something you most definitely can hang your hat on.  

“The jury were impressed to see the OUYA team deliver an affordable gaming product that challenges the closed nature and high development costs of the console gaming industry. It is our hope that this product will open up the potential for individuals and small companies to create innovative games that move the industry beyond its established genres.

It will be interesting to see games that are normally played in the ‘bubble’ of a smart phone, being placed into the social context the TV screen. It is also great to see the vote of confidence the product received from its overwhelming kickstarter response and we wish the team all the best in talking their product forward."

They have a great synopsis PDF of the Ouya project.   You can read all about the award here: http://www.core77designawards.com/2013/recipients/ouya-2/

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Ouya On Amazon.ca's Top Hardware List

At this point the Ouya itself has spent 11 days in the top 100 and is in the #2 spot under the Xbox One, and the Ouya Wireless Controller has spent 114 days in the top 100! Not too bad.

This is great news for the little console that could.  Just the fact that it is sitting at the top of the list and its just pre-orders is awesome.  Looks like we will at least have a pretty large group of Canadian players once this thing starts shipping.

Hopefully it gets in the top 100 in the US soon.  Check out the Canadian top 100 here.

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Nvidia Grid Running On Ouya

If you haven't heard of Nvidia Grid before its ok, to be honest I hadn't either. 

Nvidia Grid is a cloud gaming system that Nvidia has designed to bridge the gap between heavy graphic games and the world of mobile and less powerful devices that continue to flood the market.

In basic terms, it allows less powerful devices to play high graphic games without needing the powerful parts built in, instead Nvidia does all of the heavy graphics and computing in the cloud and essentially sends you a video feed of the game.  This gives you a smooth ride even on small gadgets, bandwidth permitting of course.  This is very similar to other services like OnLive.

What this produces is the ability for lower power devices to play big name, high graphic games, when you might not normally see these types of games ever become available for that particular device, like the Ouya.  Check out the video below of the Ouya running Borderlands 2... pretty impressive. I can't wait to get my hands on a service like this.  Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments.

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Pre-Order Your Ouya on Amazon Now

If you haven't ordered your Ouya yet, you can now place your order through Amazon. 

With free shipping and a 'pre-order price guarantee' (not sure why that's necessary), you now have an alternative ordering outlet.  It also says "This item will be released on June 25, 2013," which is pretty well known at this point.

If you check it out for nothing else, they have some cool product shots as well as what appears to be detailed retail box shots.  The 'final' box (if it is indeed the final design) is pretty cool looking.   They have some great screenshots on the back to show the power of this little device, which should hopefully get some people excited.

Other than that, at this point its just another place to get your Ouya.  Some might choose to get it from Amazon because of their reputation for shipping on time and having great, easy to use return policies.   I don't see anything about Amazon Prime shipping yet, but if that becomes available, that would make Amazon the best place to get your Ouya. We will keep an eye on this and let you know about any changes.

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Want to Work At Ouya? Now Is Your Chance!

Are you an Android pro?  Do you love games? Want to see Ouya be the best it can be?  Well now is your chance. 

Ouya has just posted a new page on their website, jobs.  Yeah thats right, now you can look into working at Ouya!  Very exciting!  Check it out, http://www.ouya.tv/jobs/

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Ouya Firmware Update 1.0.298

Today Ouya announced the latest Firmware Update 1.0.298. There are a ton of great updates included in this update that have been a long time coming.  The best part is that they have listened and delivered on some huge updates, that will really launch Ouya into greater contention for the TV based console war. 

I won't bother repeating all the information, I will let the release itself as well as a great video by Ouyaforum.com (the #1 Ouya community forums on the net, in case you didn't know).

"Here is the changelog for 1.0.298:

• New Discover section is LIVE!
• Layout is changed to better highlight games and allow the user to more easily access them.
• Tile images now load in more quickly and have better caching.
• Improved performance and navigation.
• Download progress is now shown on the tile for each game, making it easier to see progress.  OUYA supports 3 simultaneous downloads and will queue requested downloads above 3. 
• Genre sections launch user to a new window so many more games can be seen at a time.
• Play category now loads more quickly and scrolls smoother for users with lots of games.
• Games with available updates now have an icon in the top right corner of their tiles in both Play and Discover.  Users can download the update from the tile in Play, or from the Game Details screen. 
• Downloaded games now install automatically.  No more annoying default Android permissions screen!  No more “Install” tiles in the Play menu! Working on world peace next.
• Users can put their OUYA into sleep mode via the controller. Hit (Y) from the main menu to do so.  OUYAs in sleep mode can be woken up by turning on a controller or pressing the power button on top of the OUYA.
• Android settings and Browser now respect TV safe zones.  And yup, part of the “O” in OUYA is still supposed to be off screen on the Main Menu =) 
• Region Restrictions are now available for Developers.  You can restrict regions for your games through the Dev Portal.  Remember, you are choosing which regions to NOT show in.  Your games show in all regions by default.
• Release Calendar is now available for developers.  Devs can choose to give a release date for their title that will show on ouya.tv for all users to see.  It’s a great way to tell people to look out for your game!
• Fixed issue that could cause input queuing in some games.
• Changed “Re-run Setup” to do a full factory reset (and renamed it to “Factory Reset”)."

Video via OuyaForum.com & OUYAReview

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