The Wii U is now expected to launch on November 18. That’s not an official release date from Nintendo, instead a claim made by a Japanese retailer. It is a date that makes sense though, as the Wii launched on Sunday, November 19 in 2006. November 18 this year is also a Sunday, which ties up nicely. It is also expected to be available in the U.S. first with Japan getting it a week later and Europe still to have a confirmed date. Whether you want a Wii U or not is a different matter, and the feedback from developers working with the hardware is anything but positive. The general consensus is that the Wii U isn’t even up to current generation consoles in terms of performance and graphical capabilities. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 outperform Nintendo’s new machine, which isn’t a great start. Since the Wii U was originally announced (quite poorly I might add) there has been speculation that the final unit would ship with support for only one tablet controller. There have been attempts tosupport two tablets, but apparently that just isn’t going to happen. Multiplayer gaming will require the use of Wiimotes (or possibly a 3DS), or some modified form of those controllers compatible with the Wii U… Wii U launch expected November 18, but hardware is lacking – Video Games Reviews, Cheats |...

Facebook has been the same as adding any other piece of content until now. Tumblr has just announced that it finally has been accepted as anOpen Graph partner and will be publishing feeds to your Timeline, News Feed, and Ticker respectively: Tumblr Gets Facebook Timeline, News Feed, and Ticker...

Kotaku, citing the all-knowing, all-anonymous Sources with a capital “S,” has learned fresh details regarding Sony’s PlayStation 4. The report claims the unit is codenamed “Orbis,” which could be referring to a number of things, and is currently planned for a 2013 holiday release. Though Orbis could mean one of many things, if you combine it with the name for Sony’s new handheld, the PlayStation Vita, you have a common Latin term “Orbis Vitae,” which means “the circle of life.” Seems like something a marketing team would do, right? Also, the address orbis.scedev.net actually leads to a website, which shares a naming convention and site design with the Vita web developer portal. The sources claim the Orbis currently sports an AMD x64 CPU, and an AMD Southern Islands GPU, and the Orbis will be capable of displaying games at a ridiculous resolution of 4096 x 2160, something far higher than what the common HDTV can generally achieve. Additionally, the report claims the Orbis should be able to display 3D games in 1080p, whereas the PlayStation 3 can only display them in 720p without things getting wiggy. Terrible news: The source claims that the Orbis won’t even bother dealing with backwards compatibility… Report: PlayStation 4 Codenamed Orbis, 2013 Holiday Release |...

Anxiously awaiting the arrival of those brand spanking new apps for your Xbox 360 console? Well, the wait is over. Video apps for Comcast Xfinity TV, HBO Go and MLB.tv have arrived on a number of consoles here at Engadget HQ. Major Nelson dropped the official word a little while ago, leaving you mere moments away from live and on demand television and baseball just in time for the start of the season. Keep in mind all three of these high profile applications feature Kinect integration — but don’t worry, you won’t be forced to swing any bats in your living room. Xbox 360 apps now live for Comcast Xfinity TV, HBO Go and MLB.tv —...

  This July major US Internet service providers will start assisting copyright holders in their fight against online copyright infringement. Major ISPs including Comcast, Verizon and Time Warner Cable will begin fulfilling their obligations under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding signed last year, which will see the providers send out copyright infringement warnings to their millions of customers. ISPs To Begin Punishing BitTorrent Pirates This Summer |...