OUYA ships to backers, hits retailers on June 4 for $99.99

Things are kicking into high gear with OUYA. After the gaming console was sent out to developers in December, the maker promised that early backers will receive their units on March 28. Right on schedule, we’re hearing that the company has begun shipping out the first batch of the pre-ordered units to their owners.

Those who have received a shipping confirmation from OUYA can expect to see the open video game console arriving on their doorsteps in five to ten days. Don’t panic if you haven’t received any notification, as the team said that it’s rolling out the shipments over the next weeks.

It has also been confirmed that retail stores in America, Canada, and the UK will have stocks of the console starting from June 4. Several big names that you can grab OUYA from include Target, Best Buy, Gamestop, and Game. It will also be available online directly from the OUYAwebsite or via Amazon.

The Android-powered device will retail for $99 in the US, while the UK price is tentatively listed at £99.99. According to Engadget, the OUYA package will include the console unit, one wireless controller, power and HDMI cables, and two AA batteries for the controller.

As a refresher, the console unit itself is equipped with a Tegra 3 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of onboard storage  – though it’s expandable via USB. The list of content partners include Twitch.tv, iheartradio, TuneIn,  XBMC, Plex, Flixster, and more.

If you’re still on the fence about spending your hard-earned money on the OUYA gaming console, check out our guide on the available alternatives.

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U.K. retailer Phones 4U sees a 40% increase in demand for the Galaxy S4 compared to the Galaxy S3

Samsung unveiled its next flagship device, the Galaxy S4, in New York City last night and it’s already showing promising signs that it could out perform the Galaxy S3 in sales. U.K. retailer Phones 4U is reporting that after 48 hours of launching its pre-registration page this week, it saw a 40 percent increase in demand.

News of this isn’t entirely surprising. The Galaxy S4 has some very appealing hardware, such as the 1.6GHz Exynos octa-core CPU. It’s also packed full of features that will appeal to a lot of people, such as S Health and S Translate.

“The anticipation surrounding the next Samsung Galaxy has been astounding and it has already received the most pre-registrations as Phones 4U of any other smartphone launch in 2013,” Phones 4U’s Chief Commercial Officer Scott Hooton said.

Phones 4U isn’t the only company seeing demand skyrocket with Samsung’s latest flagship though. EE said they’ve also been seeing high levels of demand too. As the hype surrounding the Galaxy S4 continues, there’s no doubt that the demand will continue to soar. Samsung’s plans of selling 10 million units a month may be a very real possibility after all.

Keep in mind that this demand is happening in the U.K., so there’s no telling what demand other carriers and retailers around the world are seeing.

The Galaxy S4 will be launching in the U.K. on April 26.

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