An Assassin’s Creed: Revelations multiplayer beta will kick off on September 3 exclusively on the PS3, available in the first week only to PlayStation Plus and UPlay members. According to Ubisoft, nine characters will be available in the beta across three maps, with four gameplay modes each. You’ll find them all listed after the break and depicted visually in the gallery below.

With Assassin’s Creed: Revelations just a few months away from launch, now’s also the time to refresh your memory of the franchise’s many outings thus far. Check out the stylish little recap clip above if you don’t know your Ezios from your Altairs.

• Characters: The Sentinel, The Vanguard, The Guardian, The Vizier, The Thespian, The Deacon, The Bombardier, The Trickster and The Champion
  
• Maps: Knight’s Hospital, Antioch, Constantinople
  
• Modes: Wanted, Manhunt, Deathmatch, and Artifact Assault

What you see above is just a fake rendering of the next iPhone. In fact, the next iPhone is such a super-hot topic that almost everyone with some photoshop skills is trying their best to make some name on the net. In my opinion, that rendering above fits more towards the next iPod Touch 3G, but some groups are taking it more seriously.

Chinese manufacturers seem to be fairly confident with a set of recently leaked Apple iPhone 5 designs, as they’ve already started producing cases based on that document. In turn, Mac Rumors commissioned CiccareseDesign to create high quality iPhone 5 renderings made as closely as possible to the leaked case designs.

Speculation lead to a more oval shaped home button, a 4 inch screen, tapered edges on the back in aluminum (rather than glass as on the iPhone 4). “The final dimensions of the new design are calculated to be: 4.33″ x 2.36″ and .27″ thickness at the top and .21″ at the bottom In comparison, the iPhone 4 dimensions are: 4.5″ x 2.31″ x .37″. So the new design is actually shorter than the existing iPhone 4, but slightly wider and thinner.”

The iPhone 5 is expected to be released in September or October of this year.

Is Facebook slowly eating your brain? Probably not, but it can have a negative impact on teens and young adults according to a recent study.

In a presentation entitled “Poke Me: How Social Networks Can Both Help and Harm Our Kids,” Larry D. Rosen, PhD, a professor of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills, reported that teens who frequently use Facebook show narcissistic (self-love) tendencies. Even more, young adults who have a “strong Facebook presence” show signs of additional psychological disorders including antisocial behaviors, mania and aggressive tendencies.

“While nobody can deny that Facebook has altered the landscape of social interaction, particularly among young people, we are just now starting to see solid psychological research demonstrating both the positives and the negatives,” he said.

Rosen’s findings were presented during the 119th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. In addition to the psychological disorders, his presentation revealed that Facebook can be distracting and can negatively impact learning. Studies have even shown that middle school, high school and college students achieved lower grades if they accessed Facebook at least once during a 15-minute study period.

“Daily overuse of media and technology has a negative effect on the health of all children, preteens and teenagers by making them more prone to anxiety, depression, and other psychological disorders, as well as by making them more susceptible to future health problems,” reads a press release from the American Psychological Association.

But as the saying goes, there are two sides to every coin: Facebook use may have its negative side effects, but there are also positive aspects in using the popular social website. According to Rosen, young adults who spend more time on Facebook are better at showing “virtual empathy” to their online friends. Social networking can even help introverted adolescents learn how to socialize without having to leave the screen.

For parents, he added that it’s a waste of time trying to monitor their kids’ social networking activities. In fact, communication is the “crux” of parenting: talk for one minute and listen for five.

“If you feel that you have to use some sort of computer program to surreptitiously monitor your child’s social networking, you are wasting your time. Your child will find a workaround in a matter of minutes,” he said. “You have to start talking about appropriate technology use early and often and build trust, so that when there is a problem, whether it is being bullied or seeing a disturbing image, your child will talk to you about it.”

A supposed “leaked” Samsung roadmap reveals several impressive phones and a 7-inch version of the Galaxy Tab. Italian website Telefonio reports that a leaked Samsung roadmap details a GT-I9250 smartphone sporting Google’s Android “Ice Cream Sandwich” OS. Its display will reportedly measure a hefty 4.65-inch and sport a native resolution of 1280 x 720. The processor wasn’t specified although it’s assumed to be dual-core.

In addition to the Android 2.4 smartphone, a larger GT-I9220 was also listed with specs consisting of a 5.29-inch, 1280 x 820 Super AMOLED Plus screen, a dual-core 1.4 GHz processor, an 8MP camera and Google’s Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” OS.

Also on the list were the GT-I9210 and GT-I8150 smartphones. The GT-I9210 reportedly will feature a 4.5-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, an 8MP rear-facing camera and a 2MP front-facing camera, Wi-Fi b/g/n, 4G connectivity, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS and Full HD video recording.

As for the GT-I8150, this smartphone is slated to feature a 3.7-inch WVGA TFT LCD screen, 4 GB of internal storage, HSPA+ connectivity, a 5MP rear-facing camera and a VGA front-facing camera, FM radio, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-fi b/g/n and support for 720p 30-FPS HD video recording.

The leaked roadmap also verified a 7-inch version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, labeled as the P6200. This tablet will have Google’s Android 3.x “Honeycomb” OS, a 3MP rear-facing camera and a 2MP front-facing camera, HSPA+ connectivity, and a native resolution of 1024 x 600. There will also be a Wi-Fi-only version labeled as the P6210.

To see the full list of “leaked” devices, check out the translated roadmap here (via Google Translate).

Apple succeeded in getting the iPad’s most successful competitor to date banned from the European Union (except for the Netherlands) when a German court granted a preliminary injunction against the distribution of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet a couple of days ago. It argued that the Samsung looked too much like the iPad, as pictured and described in Apple’s Community Design 000181607-0001document for the EU. Shockingly, the judge agreed.

The problem with this decision is that the device pictured in the application looks like nothing more or less than generic tablet computer. If you saw the images by themselves, outside of the context of the 000181607-0001, you certainly wouldn’t think iPad exclusively. You’d think tablet.

What’s next? Maybe the EU will ban every other tablet (Android, Windows, webOS, BlackBerry, Linux, etc.) that exists or ever will exist because they’re fairly thin, compact and rectangular like the iPad. That would certainly simplify the life of IT professionals as they take charge of workplace tablet support. Or perhaps, this silly ruling will quickly be overturned so the free market will be allowed to do its job. That is, until the next ruling in the ever-more litigious world of smartphones and tablets.

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While Google’s Android continues to assimilate mobile OS market share, Windows Phone 7 continues to decline, a reverse effect of what Microsoft actually hoped for, which is to gobble up some of Android and iOS’s market.

Last Thursday comScore released data showing key trends in the U.S. mobile phone sector during the three month average period ending June 2011. According to the numbers, there’s good reason why Microsoft and Apple may be secretly campaigning against Google on the mobile OS front: Android numbers are growing while iOS remains somewhat level and Windows Phone 7 continues to plummet.

During the last three months of 2010, Microsoft introduced Windows Phone 7 to the public and commanded 8-percent of the smartphone OS market. But by the end of March 2011, that number dropped to 7.5-percent. ComScore’s report now indicates that Microsoft’s share has fallen yet another 1.7-percent by the last day of June, owning just 5.8-percent of the mobile OS market.

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