Author: Serkadis

We’ve picked up on a couple of new scans for Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. The scans are from a Japanese magazine, though not necessa…

The video we have here is a sneak peek of the Beta Live for Dice’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, and PC). Guiding us through the 13-minu…

USA Today: As expected, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released revised H1N1 estimates Thursday indicating that 3,900 people in the U.S. have died from the virus, including 540 children (Sternberg, 11/12).

The Washington Post/The Associated Press: “Estimates of deaths caused by the swine flu have grown to nearly 4,000 since April, roughly quadrupling previous estimates. But that doesn’t mean swine flu suddenly has worsened.” Instead, the data offers a “long-awaited better attempt to quantify the new flu’s true toll. Most cases still don’t require a doctor’s care.” Overall, the H1N1 virus has sickened an estimated 22 million Americans, since April (Neergaard, 11/13).

VGP-BMS80 is the latest VAIO Bluetooth Laser mouse and trust me Sony has come up with a different kind of a mouse this time. Since VAIO as a brand has been introduced there were a dozen of mice that Sony created and in recent years bluetooth mice dominate the market. All kinds of colors were introduced to match your VAIO. I will be prepping up a post in the near future about a VAIO Mouse and how this device has been evolving throughout years. For now, check out this pictorial and watch out for the upcoming video of this laser mouse to be paired with PS3. Our earlier post about it can be found here.

The Bluetooth Laser Mouse VGP-BMS80 is a multifunctional mouse that can connect to a VAIO PC or PLAYSTATION 3 without using a dedicated device driver. It has the following modes of operation:

1. PC Modes. There are 2 PC Modes available for you to operate with your VAIO:

• Air Mode
• Mouse Mode

During Air Mode you can freely operate your personal computer at a distance from the display. For example, you can operate your VAIO connected to a TV to play movies or music, or view a Web browser from the comfort of a sofa. While in Air Mode, the mouse  operates in your hand and does not have to be on any surface.

During Mouse Mode you can use this BT multifunctional mouse as a standard mouse with some enhanced features for browsing, scrolling, etc (additional software supplied).

PS3 Mode

There are two modes available: Air and Mouse mode. Once connected to PS3, the mouse functions similarly to a PS3 controller. However, the mouse has no functionality within PS3 games.

You can move the mouse pointer freely with the Optical Finger Sensor in the middle of the mouse. You can also input an URL or perform keyword searches using the supplied software keyboard. The input language is switched to your personal computer’s display language. Compliant languages are English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Japanese.

We all know the importance of Section 230 safe harbors that protect a service provider from actions done by its users. While there have been a few cases that chipped away at those protections, on the whole, they’re quite solid. However, Eric Goldman brings us the story of how some lawyers seem to be dealing with this. They’ve stopped suing the sites directly, but they then file a lawsuit against the party who actually created the content they want taken down — but if that person does not show up in court, then the suing party can get a default judgment, and then use that default judgment to get the content taken offline — since the default judgment can be used to enforce injunctions against third parties. From the perspective of the suing party, then, they have every incentive in the world to try to get a default judgment, rather than even fighting with the real person in court. Then, with the default judgment, they can force a site to take down the content. As Goldman notes:

For the price of a complaint and a defendant’s default (which can be engineered by targeting a phantom author), plaintiffs obtain an effective cudgel to excise unwanted content throughout the web.

That’s not a good thing.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

This post is for the few people out there that actually use the DSi’s camera. Sure, many probably snapped a few pics when they first got the device, but it’s more of a novelty feature and probably not something you would use everyday. But if you do, this $20 kit from Thrustmaster is for you.

The kit includes just about every camera accessory you could ever want: macro lens, telephoto lens, wide angle lens, removable flash, color filters, and a handy storage bag. It’s only $20, which means this kit could totally be a Christmas gift to a younger child. Just be prepared for it to end up in a junk drawer before the end of the year.

[Thrustmaster via ubergizmo]

Sony has introduced a number of keyboards to accessorize your VAIO from wired to wireless (VGP-WKB1 and VGP-WKB5)

Here is a pic of VGP-WKB5:

This is the first time Sony went with Bluetooth option (the ones above used RF). We have written about its introduction here and now it is time to unbox it. Watch out for a video review and its interaction with PS3 later on.

The government mailed out 64 million $40 coupons for DTV conversion. The program ended on the 9th, with 35 million of the coupons used. How can this be? There must be at least half a billion TVs in the US, and a lot of those households or stores needed to upgrade to digital. Do they not like free money? Did they get theirs through magic, or a secret non-government program?

If you’re looking for more info at the coupon website, good luck. It’s dead for me.

We do know that Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, and PC) made some record-breaking debut all over the world. But it sure would be even more interestin…

BullJustin points out to us that the guys behind Star Wreck (which we wrote about back in 2006) are trying a few interesting things to promote their follow-up movie project Iron Sky — a story about Nazis who fled to the moon in 1945 with plans to return to Earth in 2018. To connect with fans, the Iron Sky project released some Creative Commons material for a movie teaser remix and is selling “War Bonds” to crowdfund part of the movie production. To be clear, the “War Bonds” aren’t actually bonds — just a limited-edition package (only 2,000) of keepsakes that includes:

• a 16-page book with very pretty pictures
• a DVD with the teaser trailer and two documentaries
• a signed certificate of support
• official dogtags
• undying gratitude

There are about 1,760 war bonds still available at 50€ a piece. Though, you can get some of the items separately from the Iron Sky online store (undying gratitude is presumably included in all purchases).

With only 240 war bonds sold since August 2008, the Iron Sky movie isn’t going to be completely funded by fans. But it looks like the British Stealth Media Group has chipped in up to 1 million euros for worldwide distribution rights — and the movie’s total budget has grown to be at least 5 million euros. On top of that, the Star Wreck folks seem to have even bigger plans — with a separate Iron Sky game project called Iron Sky: Operation Highjump that is looking for contributions/suggestions from fans to create a single-player video game based on the movie’s background story. All of which is based on the WreckAMovie community that encourages more films to be bootstrapped and crowdsourced from a collection of both amateur and professional filmmakers.

So for much less than $200 million, the Star Wreck crew is developing creative ways to interact with their fans (and other filmmakers) to get their projects accomplished more cost effectively. They’ve given away free promotional materials for fan remixing. They’ve set up a process for fans to donate ideas and money to the project. They’re creating movie accessories that get an audience excited about a movie that hasn’t even been made yet. Shouldn’t this be the way more movies are produced?

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

The gaming blog Destructoid has a hot tip on some possible color variations coming for the PSP Go. Apparently, marketing firm Hall & Partners Europe (connected with Sony) posted a survey on their Valued Opinions website that shows the image in this post. The survey queries users as to what colors they would like to see next for the PSP Go – including, Bright Yellow, Coral, Burgundy, Light Grey, Camo Green, Blue, Turquoise, Pink, Bright Red, Lemon, Navy Grey and Ocean Blue. It doesn’t surprise me that Sony would go down this route since the regular PSP-3000 is available in several various colors in various regions.

Which one do you like? I like the Blue of course! It would remind me of Sony Insider.

Wanna know who the top-billers are for NPD’s October sales charts? You don’t have to look further, cos we have it right here. On the software front,…

Recently, a NY Times article about the giant patch of floating garbage in the ocean got some attention, not so much for the contents of the article, but because it was the first time the NY Times had worked with Spot.us to fund some journalism. If you’re not familiar with Spot.us, it’s an innovative non-profit startup, that helps “crowdfund” certain journalism projects. I’m not convinced it’s a great business model, but it is one that’s interesting to watch, and a partnership with the NY Times is definitely a big win for the organization.

However, I think Mathew Ingram really highlighted the most interesting thing about the whole project. While the NY Times article that came from Spot.us was somewhat mundane and didn’t add much to the half a dozen or so other articles that have been written about the garbage patch, the blog written by the reporter who did this project, Lindsey Hoshaw, was a lot more interesting and compelling than the NY Times article itself. But the blog wasn’t a part of the NY Times at all.

What Mathew was really showing was how some traditional publications get locked into a certain way of doing things because “this is how we do things.” And in that world “the article” is the ultimate goal. It’s a “deliverable.” The process and the journey seem less important — even though they’re quite often the most interesting parts, to a wider community that wants to feel more and more a part of the journalism process itself. The NY Times is pretty good about doing certain topic blogs, and even brought in the Freakonomics blog under its own brand, a while back. But Mathew makes a really good point that this sort of thing probably would have worked better if the entire blog was seen as a part of the NY Times process. It could have ended with a big “story” — or not. It’s not even clear that’s needed here. In the end, the real point is that the old structures don’t always make sense. And while it was already a big step for the NY Times to create this story using such a new and different process as Spot.us, the end result might have been even better if they’d gone even further and highlighted the journey of the story, rather than just the endpoint.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

So my wife was still cooking breakfast. I couldn’t go back to sleep on an empty stomach. ‘Decided to play a practice game online with nine other players.

So I finally got on a team where only one was feeding himself to the opposing group. We won:

I killed four enemy champions, made 12 assists and… didn’t die. (Click on the pic. Check it out; 0 deaths. Way to go for a support champion.) Wooohooo! Kayle the Judicator’s skills really make her one tough, metal encased mama.

The wonders of starvation I guess. 😀 😀 😀

Wanna know where you can download this free to play Warcraft DotA clone? The download link can be found after the jump.

>>> The download link and an HD trailer of the game can be found HERE

>>> See more downloadable free full version real-time strategy (RTS) games HERE

Earlier this week, an Australian coder by the name of Ikee wrote an interesting iPhone worm targeting users with jailbroken iPhones — specifically those users who had not RTFM and changed their root password. The worm was programmed to scan the 3G IP ranges of the Telus, Optus, and Vodafone networks in Australia. Once a vulnerable iPhone was found, the exploit would change the wallpaper of said device to…Rick Astley. Respect. In an interview Ikee explains that his worm was designed as more of a warning shot than an attempt to compromise user data. Ikee had hoped users would be motivated to change their root password, which is set to “alpine” by default post-jailbreak, after seeing the consequences of a compromised root password. Fast forward to today, and a new anonymous coder has modified Ikee’s worm, and this new variant has less of that public service announcement feel to it. The modified strain, dubbed “iPhone/Privacy.A” by the online security firm Intego, is programmed to do several things: act silently and retrieve e-mail messages, SMS messages, calendar appointments, contacts, photos, music files, videos, along with any other data recorded by your iPhone apps. Currently details on where the worm is uploading the farmed data is scarce, and the threat of being infected is low. What’s our recommendation? If you have a jailbroken iPhone, change the root password. Maybe this is why Apple’s looking to secure their incredibly unsecure mobile operating system…

Read

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Google today officially announced that it had acquired IP telephony software company Gizmo5, a service many users have already tried to use in conjunction with their Google Voice accounts to make SIP calls.

In the Google Voice blog, product managers Wesley Chan and Craig Walker said, “While we don’t have any specific features to announce right now, Gizmo5’s engineers will be joining the Google Voice team to continue improving the Google Voice and Gizmo5 experience. Current Gizmo5 users will still be able to use the service, though we will be suspending new signups for the time being, and existing users will no longer be able to sign up for a call-in number.”

Since last summer, a number of Google Voice users have published methods of integrating a Gizmo5 account with a Google Voice account to enable free incoming and outgoing calls over SIP.

The integration of Gizmo5’s technology has the potential to vastly grow Google Voice into the proverbial Skype killer.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009

These days, when people aren’t talking about the Apple Tablet, they’re talking about how Apple’s next target is the Big Three gaming companies. The iPhone will topple them! iPhone is a revolutionary gaming device! Well, certainly a little optimism is warranted; the iPhone has inarguably changed the landscape of mobile phones, personal media players, and to a lesser extent personal computers. Why shouldn’t Apple extend its holy sovereignty to gaming?

It already has, in fact. But Apple has come kicking and screaming the whole way. The iPhone, you understand, was not meant to be a gaming device, and in Cupertino, Apple’s intentions are paramount. Apple could never accidentally create a platform for gaming; if it wasn’t meant for gaming (or enterprise, or medical use, or reading e-books, etc.) from the beginning, Apple doesn’t want it happening at all. Because if Apple didn’t intend it, it’s outside of the bounds they set into the platform (regardless of how well it works, much like tethering) — it breaks the mold and, ironically, that’s the last thing Apple wants.

It’s no secret that the Apple ecosystem is a gilded cage. It’s a nice cage, and large, and yes indeed that gilding is very attractive by Jove, but all the doors are shut until Apple opens them. If you think otherwise, you’re probably already scrawling some crude flame in the comment section below. Thank you for your insight. Really, though: Macs are a carefully-tended walled garden of semi-delights (to mix several metaphors), and that’s part of why they’re so good at what they do. Attempts at expanding the garden have been made in fits by Apple, with varying success. Serious music production has never really caught on, nor scientific or medical applications, and any real expansions (personal media, mobile, and video primarily) have been engineered by Apple and not third parties. Why should it be any different for gaming? If Apple doesn’t do it, no one will. And Apple’s not going to do it.

But this is all getting rather vague. There are more substantial objections to an Apple expansion into gaming than my half-baked theories on their corporate philosophy. I’ll just enumerate them here in list form. I’m using the iPhone as the basis for these, but the points apply to the tablet without serious modification.

---

Hardware
The iPhone isn’t a gaming machine. It’s a smartphone. This produces limitations which are for some invigorating, and for some troublesome. For instance, you’ll never see a decent platformer on the iPhone. FPSes are awkward. RPGs take up too much space. You’re essentially limited to casual games and things like tilt-to-control racers. There are some notable exceptions; John Carmack loves the platform, for instance, and will probably be making some interesting stuff. The iPhone may be suitable for some games, but it wasn’t built for them, and that makes a difference for Apple.

Battery
Part of the hardware objection, but worth noting on its own, is the fact that battery life would be off-the-charts bad. How long can you really play a high-quality title on the iPhone? An hour maybe, before you’re down to 25% battery? Remember this is also your lifeline to email, the web, and so on. Unlike a DS, you can’t afford to let it run down. A portable game system needs to be as efficient as it can, and the iPhone is already an energy hog. No one wants to be tethered to an outlet to play their favorite handheld. And the thing already explodes when you use it too hard.

Developers
A few developers are putting out real iPhone games, but where is your Valve, your CryTek, your Rockstar? These are the people who make AAA titles that sell millions and make billions. Ubisoft may outsource some company to make a little Assassin’s Creed 2 clone to cash in a bit on the mobile contingent, but it’ll just be a way to sell the real game. They’re not going to spend $50m to develop a truly amazing game for the iPhone. No one will. Hardly anyone does as it is for existing handhelds (Dragon Quest IX notwithstanding). Apple could align itself with developers, but my feeling is they wouldn’t mix well. Apple is pretty much oil to their partners’ water to begin with due to their iWay-or-the-highway (clever, no?) approach to “collaboration,” and I don’t think that the major game studios would take a shine to it either.

Pricing
Do you see people hitting that “purchase” button when a game costs more than $10? Neither do I. Real games cost upwards of $40-50 when they come out. That won’t fly in an App Store or iTunes environment, where the emphasis is on multiple small, easy-to-swallow buys.

Brand
Apple doesn’t do games. They don’t put out games, they don’t make it easy to play games, they don’t encourage developers to make games for their platform. This is the last time Apple and Mac users were excited about games:

Seriously. Ever since the Great Halo Disappointment, nobody has considered Apple’s gaming enthusiasm as being anything other than a lark. Meanwhile, Nintendo is so completely identified with games that one implies the other in almost any context, Microsoft is hard at work building a gaming platform that dovetails with their entire ecosystem, and Sony is actually gathering steam with the PS3, as its lower price leads more people to find that it actually might be the most powerful and versatile system on the market. Apple struck at mobile phone makers when they were at their most complacent and vulnerable; gaming consoles and companies are stronger and more successful than they’ve ever been. It would be an insanely bad time to take a swat at them.

Content
Pop quiz: what game had the most lucrative launch of all time? If you answered Modern Warfare 2, an extremelyviolent and graphic game being accused of turning kids into terrorists, then you are correct! Apple is already choosy when it comes to what appears on its devices, and the kind of ultraviolence that sells games probably isn’t going to fly. Apple isn’t as positively warm and fuzzy as Nintendo usually is, but it would be a pretty major shift to start pushing games like MW2.

They don’t want to
Don’t you think that if Apple had any inclination to make the iPhone or Mac into a gaming platform, they’d have at least shown a little of that by now? Where’s the gamepad accessory for the iPhone? Why isn’t Apple courting the big developers to get some titles on Macs? There’s no indication that Apple is interested in games except as a class of apps to take a cut on. Almost all game development so far has been driven by the “there’s gold in them thar iPhones” mentality.

They don’t need to
This readership more than any other should be aware of Apple’s solvency in this worldwide financial crisis; indeed they have thrived mightily. The iPhone shows continual growth, they gain a tenth of a point of OS market share every month or two, and they’re making money hand over fist via iTunes and the App Store. Why the devil would they want to get into gaming, a market that would expose all the company’s weaknesses, bring their best hardware to its knees, and complicate their entire strategy — one which is working perfectly? I’m not saying that Apple doesn’t like to rock the boat, but they don’t do it when they stand a good chance of being thrown in the drink.

---

There you have it. Of course, with my luck, Apple will probably announce a huge gaming initiative tomorrow.

All that said, Apple does have an increasing presence in gaming. It owes this in no small part to Nintendo, which has popularized casual and mobile gaming to a huge extent with the Wii and DS. The iPhone may take a bite out of the more casual games coming out for the DS, but beyond that I don’t see a major effect. And as long as it’s enough for Apple to make a few bills, they’re not going to try too hard to change that.