Weekend Wrap-up: WWDC, E3 and more

This past week was a busy one for tech news. Very busy.

It started fast on Monday when Microsoft held its pre-E3 press conference to show off some of the Xbox One’s launch titles. Microsoft also revealed the console’s price — $499 — and let us know that the Xbox One would be coming in November.

We barely got a chance to catch our breath as Apple’s WWDC keynote quickly followed that afternoon. Everyone had a feeling that a new iOS release was coming, and we got a glimpse of iOS 7. Apple also brought out the next version of OS X, Mavericks. On the hardware side of things, a refresh to the MacBook Air line of laptops was announced and a brand-new Mac Pro (built in the USA) was teased.

Later that evening, we got a “response” of sorts from Sony about how its PlayStation 4 would compare to Microsoft’s Xbox One. The company announced with dramatic effect that there would be no Internet “check-ins” required and gamers would be free to sell and trade their games as they wanted — news that was met with a roar from the crowd. The next-generation console war is shaping up to be an interesting one, indeed.

The rest of the week brought us news of Google’s Waze acquisition, Facebook’s new-found support for hashtags (much to my chagrin), Twitter’s release of Twitter Analytics for all users and the arrival of Microsoft Office on iOS for users who subscribe to Office 365.

Oh, and if you happen to share your Netflix account with a significant other, your children or anyone else in your house (or out of it), the service will be adding support for multiple profiles later this summer. Score.

That’s all the big stuff from this week. Keep it here for more news as it happens, and be sure to check back in next Saturday to catch up on everything you missed.