Mereja

Author: Zach Walton

  • Killzone: Mercenary Gives The Vita A Much Needed Boost On September 17

    The PlayStation Vita has a problem – it has no games. Sure, the handheld got some excellent releases last year in the form of Gravity Rush and Persona 4 Golden, but it’s nowhere near the level the 3DS is at. Third parties are also shying away from the system, so it’s up to Sony to save its new handheld.

    Sony announced that Killzone: Guerilla will be coming to the Vita on September 17. The title was first announced at Gamescom last year, but we haven’t heard much about it since then. The title will be another spin off set in the Killzone universe set after the events of the first title.

    The game looks good in the trailer, but the title will have against negative perceptions as shooters don’t have the best track record on the Vita. Granted, the two first-person shooters available on the system – Resistance: Burning Skies and Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified – were both made by the same developer that has now bowed out of console development. Killzone: Mercenary will be developed by Guerrilla Games, the team behind the console titles. That should help allay any fears that the title will be inferior to its console counterparts.

    As for specific details of the game, Guerrilla says that Mercenary will have nine campaign missions, each averaging about an hour in length each. Completed missions will offer additional objectives for subsequent playthroughs. Playing into the idea of mercenaries, the game will also reward players with in-game cash in both singleplayer and multiplayer that can be used to buy better gear.

    Killzone: Mercenary will launch on September 17 for the PlayStation Vita. The title will be out in Europe on September 18.

  • Zend Framework 2.1.0 Is Now Available

    Zend Framework 2 has been a popular open source PHP framework since it was introduced a few years ago. The community team of programmers have been working on minor updates since then, but a major update has just been made available.

    The Zend Framework community announced Wednesday that Zend Framework 2.0.7 and 2.1.0 are now available for download. Version 2.0.7 will be the last scheduled release in the 2.0 series, and only contains a number of bugfixes. You can check out the bugfix list here.

    The release of version 2.1.0 is a much larger deal, and features a number of new improvements and additions that make the software more powerful. Here’s the major changes:

  • New Zend\Permissions\Rbac component, providing Role-Based Authorization Controls. These complement our existing Zend\Permissions\Acl component, providing another mechanism for providing authorization for your applications. We have Kyle Spraggs to thank for this addition.
  • New Zend\Test component, providing the ability to perform functional or integration testing on your ZF2 applications, courtesy of Blanchon Vincent.
  • Support for Oracle and IBM DB2 databases in Zend\Db. Many thanks to Ralph Schindler for spearheading these efforts.
  • A new Zend\Stdlib\StringUtils class to provide unified functionality around manipulating strings, particularly those in multibyte character sets. Thanks to Marc Bennewitz!
  • Scrypt support for Zend\Crypt. Thanks go to Enrico Zimuel for this addition.
  • Apache htpassword support in Zend\Crypt and in the HTTP authentication adapter; thanks go to Enrico Zimuel again!
  • New integration for handling and manipulating file uploads with the InputFilter, Form, and Mvc components, including capablities around the PRG pattern. Please thank Chris Martin for his huge amount of work around this!
  • A new render.error event, allowing you to fail gracefully in the event of a view rendering error. This allows you to present a static error page in such situations, as well as to log the problem. Thanks go to radnan for this addition.
  • Additional integration between a variety of plugin managers and the service manager was created, covering form elements, filters, validators, route classes, and serializers; this allows application-level configuration of these plugin managers, providing a simplified interface for configuring custom plugins.
  • Martin Meredith provided seven new traits for end-user use in PHP 5.4 applications.
  • The Authentication component received support for storage chains and validators.
  • Better console support, including better help messages, increased capabilities around colorisation, and more.
  • Many incremental improvements in Zend\Db; in particular, addition of profiling support, cross-table select join support, derived table in select join, and literal objects.
  • Zend\Logger has new FirePHP, ChromePHP, MongoDB, and FingersCrossed writers; thanks go to Walter Tamboer, Jeremy Mikola, and Stefan Kleff.
  • The MVC layer sports more flexibility and capabilities in the AbstractRestfulController, including automated content-negotiation for JSON requests, and support for most HTTP methods, including OPTIONS and HEAD (and the ability to support arbitrary HTTP methods).
  • Zend\Session now has a MongoDB save handler, and provides better interoperability between sessions managed by ZF2 and 3rd party code.

    • Zend Framework 2.1.0 features two new components as well:

  • ZendService_Apple_Apns, which provides push notification capabilities for Apple iOS. This component may be installed via Composer or Pyrus.
  • ZendService_Google_Gcm, which provides push notification capabilities for Google Android. This component may be installed via Composer or Pyrus.

    • Finally, there is now tooling support for the framework in the form of zftool.phar. Those who use it can expect the following features, with more being added in the future:

  • Skeleton application creation
  • Module creation within a skeleton
  • Autoloader classmap creation
  • ZF2 installation to a directory

    • You can grab Zend Framework 2.0.7 and 2.1.0 here. While you’re at it, you should check out Zend Framework 2 on github.

  • Senators Seek To Extend The Internet Tax Freedom Act Indefinitely

    Unless you’re buying something online, the Internet is a tax free service. That all might change in 2014, however, if a bill barring the government from taxing the Internet isn’t extended. Fortunately, two senators are already on the case with a new permanent extension.

    The Hill reports that Senators Kelly Ayotte and Dean Heller have introduced an extension to 1998′s Internet Tax Freedom Act. The law last saw an expansion in 2007 that would keep the Internet tax free until 2014. The law being proposed by Ayotte and Heller would make the extension permanent. The bill would only block taxes like bandwidth or email taxes. It does not have an effect on online sales tax as that’s an entirely separate issue.

    In a statement published on her Web site, Ayotte said extending tax exemptions for Internet access will keep job growth alive:

    “E-commerce is thriving largely because the Internet is free from burdensome tax restrictions. Unfortunately, tax collectors see it as a new revenue source, and they must be stopped. This legislation will provide certainty to the marketplace, helping the Internet continue to be a driving force for jobs and growth.”

    Heller also chimed in by saying the permanent tax exemption would preserve the Internet “as a tool for education and innovation:”

    “Nevadans and every American should be able to access the Internet without penalties from the federal government. The Internet Tax Freedom Act will ensure a long-standing federal policy that prevents the government from raising taxes, and preserves the Internet as a tool for education and innovation. I am pleased to work with Senator Ayotte on this issue and encourage Congress to work together to extend this act permanently.”

    I’m sure there will be some disagreement over how far Internet taxation can go, and some may argue that a permanent extension would not allow them to revisit the issue in the future if Internet taxation becomes more acceptable. That being said, an extension, preferably longer than the previous seven year extension, would only be a good thing. The Internet’s phenomenal growth can only be attributed to its lack of regulation, and taxing people for just using Internet services would seriously cut down on its continued growth.

    Besides, I don’t think any of us want to pay more for Internet access than we already do.

  • Facebook App Center Gets New Game Categories

    Facebook’s App Center launched in May of last year, and has already proven successful in driving more installs than the old games dashboard. Now the social network is adding more discovery options so even more developers have a better chance of being spotted by players.

    Facebook announced that it was adding new and updated game categories to App Center to “make it easier for people to browse and find games.” So what kind of changes can developers expect? One example given is that “Action & Arcade” will now be split into two separate categories to better help players find exactly what they’re looking for. Facebook will also be putting more of an emphasis on games by placing the games category at the top of the category list with all subcategories beneath it.

    The other change this week is the removal of two temporary fields created after the Global Pages update in December. The fields – global_brand_like_count and global_brand_talking_about_count – allowed Page administrators to “access country-level insights about their Pages” after moving to the new Global Pages structure. The temporary fields were only meant to be around until January 19, and as expected, the two fields are now gone.

    As a friendly reminder, developers only have a few more weeks to address the Breaking Changes going live on February 6. Check here for more information.

    On a final note, the weekly bug report says that 261 bugs were reported, 82 were assigned for further review and 186 were resolved. You can check out the full list at the blog post.

  • Injustice: Gods Among Us Finally Explains Itself… Kind Of

    Beyond a few hints, we still don’t really know why the DC Universe heroes are fighting each other in NetherRealm’s Injustice: Gods Among Us. The latest trailer doesn’t explain everything, but it gives us a few clues.

    The latest trailer – aptly titled “Story Trailer” – seeks to explain a bit of the background behind the world of Injustice. Joker has apparently destroyed Metropolis, Superman and Wonder Woman are subjecting mankind to an iron fist rule ala Red Son, and Batman seems to be the freedom fighter trying to bring order to the chaos. All in all, your typical alternate world DC plot.

    The trailer also gives us our first look at Hawkgirl, who might be a playable character in the game.

    The trailer indicates that the story will please long time DC fans, but will the gameplay satisfy notoriously picky fighting game fans? The studio’s previous title, Mortal Kombat 9, won over critics and players alike. Injustice will do just fine if it retains the same accessible, yet highly tuned, fighting system that its predecessor sported.

    Injustice: Gods Among Us will launch on April 16 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U.

  • Mobile Game Development Is Easy And Profitable (If You’re Lucky)

    It seems that everybody is going into mobile game development these days. The traditional console market is shrinking as more and more gamers tire of the same 6-year-old hardware. They’re beginning to look for new experiences that they can’t get anywhere else, and mobile games provide that experience. It’s a huge industry and developers stand to profit from it.

    A new infographic from Adobe shows just how much money a developer stands to make from creating games for mobile platforms. How much money? Let’s just say that the mobile gaming industry now makes about as twice as much as the music industry. That’s $56 billion being pumped into a single industry annually. Beyond the money, those looking for audience have one as 98 million Americans play social or casual games.

    Making games is hard though, right? Actually, making games, especially for mobile platforms, is easier than ever. Can you program in Flash? Have an artist for a friend? You have all you need to make the next great mobile title. Adobe AIR allows you to seamlessly port your Flash developed titles to mobile platforms while taking advantage of native hardware acceleration.

    Mobile Game Developer Is Easy And Profitable (If You're Lucky)

    Of course, anybody going into game development must have tempered expectations. It’s unlikely that you’re going to have the next Angry Birds or Temple Run on your hands right from the get go. Game development is grueling and sometimes painful, but incredibly rewarding for those who stick with it. Making bank is only a nice bonus on top of creating something that has the power to connect people on a deeper level than anything else available.

    In short – If you’re making a game to make money, you’re gonna have a bad time.

  • RIM Stock Takes A Hit After BlackBerry 10 Reveal

    RIM, now known as BlackBerry, unveiled its latest set of handsets today that run its latest BlackBerry 10 operating system. The crowd present at the launch event were excited about the product, but investors were less than impressed.

    RIM’s share price was at a little over $16 this morning before the BlackBerry 10 handsets were unveiled. After the unveiling, there was a substantial drop to $14.44. Shortly after, the share price climbed a little to only drop again to $14.25. Since then, it’s been steadily decreasing with its share price now at a little under $14, or a drop of 11 percent.

    So, what happened? A new product launch is usually something to celebrate, but the response from investors has obviously been less than positive. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Dave Garrity of GVA Research says that RIM’s renewed focus as a smaller company may not help in the end as “the list of businesses which ‘successfully shrunk themselves to prosperity’ is short.”

    It also seems that many investors were not thrilled with CEO Thorsten Heins performance on stage this morning. The scripted event did little to sell any of them on the future of BlackBerry 10 as Heins’ excitement for the product rang hollow.

    RIM needs to boost investor confidence with its latest product, and it hasn’t exactly done that during this first impression. It’s important to remember, however, that today is just that – a first impression. Investors might change their tune once the phone gets in the hands of consumers around the world. It might even end up being more of a success than anybody could have hoped. We’ll all just have to wait and see.

    If you need to catch up on all the BlackBerry 10 news of today, check out our extensive coverage here.

  • Get Up Close And Personal With The New BlackBerry 10 Handsets

    BlackBerry, formerly known as RIM, announced its newest handsets that will run on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system. Both devices feature a little something for everybody, including those that demand a physical keyboard on their handsets.

    First up is the flagship BlackBerry 10 device – the BlackBerry Z10. This will be the device that RIM will market to consumers and enterprise customers alike. It’s more similar to the iPhone than anything else, but features a slightly larger screen than Apple’s latest smartphone.

    The other handset – the BlackBerry Q10 – will definitely appeal more to the enterprise customer that wants something similar to a classic BlackBerry handset. The device features the physical keyboard that BlackBerry fans have come to know and love, while still sporting all the power and functionality of the BlackBerry 10 operating system.

    Check out the rest of our BlackBerry 10 coverage here.

  • BlackBerry Messenger Gets Video Chat And Screen Share In BlackBerry 10

    BlackBerry 10 officially launched today to a chorus of BlackBerry fans extolling its praises. The new features, such as Hub and Flow, are sure to excite long time fans. The new BlackBerry Messenger app will probably do the same.

    The company formerly known as RIM showed off its new BlackBerry Messenger app today. The integrated messenger service has evolved quite a bit over the years, and the transition to BlackBerry 10 presents a new, fresh look for one of BlackBerry’s defining features.

    First up is BBM Video Chat and Screen Share. Video chat is pretty self-explanatory, but Screen Share is something wholly unique to BB10. Users can now share what’s on their display with their friends during a video chat. It would be especially useful for those who like to share photos of family members or pets with their friends.

    It wouldn’t be a new BlackBerry product if there wasn’t a focus on business applications, and the new BlackBerry Messenger has just that. The company says that Screen Share is especially useful for those who want to share documents, like Powerpoint slides and Excel spreadsheets, with coworkers over a live video chat.

    You can follow more of our BlackBerry 10 coverage here.

  • Check Out All The New Features In BlackBerry 10

    BlackBerry, the company formerly known as RIM, revealed its latest BlackBerry 10 handsets and operating system to the world today. The devices come with a number of new features that RIM BlackBerry thinks consumers and enterprise customers alike will love.

    First up is BlackBerry Hub, the one stop shop for all the messages you receive in any given day. It collects all the texts, BlackBerry Messenger messages, Tweets and Facebook posts you receive into one place. It’s the one big feature of BlackBerry 10 that the company has spent a lot of time talking about.

    Similarly, BlackBerry has taken a lot of time to focus on the enterprise advantages of BlackBerry Hub. Alongside keeping all of your incoming messages in one place, Hub also keeps track of all your meetings and calendar events. You can even access who will be attending meetings all from within the Hub app.

    Next is BlackBerry Flow and Peek, both of which make multitasking easier on mobile devices. Flow is the name given to BlackBerry 10′s ability to move between apps flawlessly without having to close any of them. Peek is just how it sounds – you can peek at an app while staying in another app. The example given during the keynote today was a user watching a YouTube video, and they could take a peek at their email while the video still plays at the side.

    The final major feature is called BlackBerry Balance. It holds personal and private business data on the device in separate areas so users can keep their personal and professional lives separated. All the enterprise data is stored on BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10. That means employees who leave the company can have company data wiped from their phones without impacting any personal data on the device.

    There’s far more BlackBerry 10 news coming out of BlackBerry today. You can follow our coverage here.

  • Nintendo Revises Sales Forecast, Lowers Expectations For Hardware And Software

    Before the Wii U launched, Nintendo said it expected to sell 5.5 million units before the end of its fiscal year in March. It’s entirely possible, but some were skeptical. Now Nintendo doesn’t even think it can reach such a sales milestone.

    Nintendo released a revised sales forecast today that showed it expects to sell less hardware in every category across the board. The company now expects to sell only 4 million Wii U units before the end of March. The company also expects to only sell 4 million Wii units instead of the 5 million it predicted earlier.

    The traditionally stable handheld market isn’t safe from decreased expectations either as Nintendo said it will sell 15 million 3DS units instead of the previously predicted 17.5 million. Sales expectations for the original DS are also down as Nintendo now expects to sell 2.3 million units instead of 2.5 million.

    Software is also down with Nintendo now predicting it will sell 16 million units of Wii U software instead of the originally planned 24 million units. Of course, a number of titles that were expected to release in February or March have been delayed. These delays probably played a larger role in the decreased expectations than anything else.

    It may look bad for Nintendo, but the company is actually operating in the black again after posting its first loss ever earlier this year. Sure, the company will post an operating loss 20 billion yen, but the company has doubled its net profit from 6 billion to 14 billion yen.

    It’s also worth noting that Nintendo will most likely see a sizable sales boost later this year when a number of anticipated titles for the system are released. Nintendo already announced a number of heavy hitting first party titles for the console this year, including a remake of fan favorite The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The console is also likely to receive a price drop before Microsoft and Sony release their respective next generation consoles later this year. All of this could lead to Nintendo dominating 2013, but it’s far too early to tell at the moment.

    [h/t: The Guardian]

  • RIM Changes Its Name To BlackBerry As Part Of Rebranding Effort

    It’s been a long time in the making, but BlackBerry 10 is finally here. RIM CEO Thorsten Heins took the stage in New York to announce the new line of handsets and mobile OS platform that the company is hoping will restore it to relevancy.

    Before all of that, however, RIM announced that its rebranding itself for the future. The first part of that change was renaming itself to simply BlackBerry. The company uses the slogan – “One brand. One promise.” – to show that it is focusing solely on the BlackBerry brand going into the future.

    The rebranding comes as a surprise, but it’s not exactly shocking. BlackBerry has been RIM’s flagship product for years so it makes sense to name itself after said product. Not to mention, people never really say RIM, but rather just say BlackBerry. The move will help the company consolidate itself under one united brand going forward into the launch of BlackBerry 10.

    The rebranding is only one small part of the BlackBerry 10 launch event today. The star of the show will be the two new handsets that run BlackBerry 10. We already know one will be the BlackBerry Z10, but the other is still veiled in relative secrecy. The only thing we know is that it will feature a physical keyboard.

    Follow more of our BlackBerry 10 coverage here.

    UPDATE: BlackBerry announces the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10. The latter has the physical keyboard. Check out our coverage for more details.

  • Objet Enters The World Of Fashion With 3D Printed Clothing

    I don’t think anybody would normally associate 3D printing with fashion. One Dutch fashion designer did, however, and the results are pretty fabulous.

    Objet released a video interview today with Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen and MIT Professor Neri Oxman, both of which worked on a multi-material 3D printed cape and skirt. The ensemble was composed of “both rubber-like and rigid elements that are 3D printed simultaneously on the Stratasys Objet Connex system.”

    The Objet blog gives some more insight into how the cape and skirt were created:

    Both the cape and skirt were 3D printed on the Objet Connex500 multi-material 3D printer. They pieces were divided into 4 parts each, with each part consisting of a flexible rubber-like substrate overlaid with rigid shell-like structures – all printed in the same job. The Connex platform is unique in its ability to simultaneously use different materials for the fabrication and simulation of different end parts and properties.

    3D printed clothing doesn’t look very comfortable, but I assume most high fashion isn’t meant to be. The design itself, however, is incredibly compelling, and might lead other fashion designers to look into the technology for future designs.

  • Minecraft Pocket Edition Version 0.6.0 Should Be Out Soon

    It was reported last week that Mojang was working on a smaller update for Minecraft Pocket Edition that would add a few new features, but its main purpose would be to address a few bugs. Plans change, however, and Mojang has decided to merge update 0.5.1 and 0.6.0 into a single update that will be out soon.

    Mojang’s Jens Bergentsen announced this morning that the next update for Minecraft Pocket Edition – version 0.6.0 – has been submitted for review. That means players should see the update hit the iOS and Android version of the title in the next one to two weeks.

    Here’s all the new additions you can expect from version 0.6.0:

    New features:

  • Signs
  • Armor
  • Baby animals
  • Fancy clouds
  • Improved D-pad
  • Stonecutter for crafting stone blocks
  • Sheep can be colored with dyes
  • New block types: Netherrack, Nether Brick, Block of Quartz with 2 variants (pillar and chiseled), mossy/cracked Smooth Stone Brick variants (creative only), chiseled/smooth Sandstone variants
  • New stairs: Nether Brick, Sandstone, Smooth Stone Brick, Quartz
  • New slabs: Sandstone
  • New item: Nether Brick (smelted from netherrack and crafted into nether brick tile)
  • Upside-down stairs, corner stairs
  • Slabs can be placed in up position (needs testing on small screens)
  • Sand and Gravel are affected by gravity

    • Tweaks:

  • Recipes for crafting slabs give 6 slabs instead of 3 (as in PC version)
  • Nether Reactor spawns Netherrack blocks instead of Obsidian
  • The fog and sky color have changed
  • The Nether Reactor now spawns more items
  • Cows drop Leather

    • Bug fixes:

  • Melons had several bugs where they would spawn too fast and where they shouldn’t

    • As you can see, quite a bit of work went into the latest version of Minecraft’s mobile counterpart. There should be plenty of new content here to keep Minecraft Pocket Edition’s 5 million players satisfied until the next update.

    Unfortunately, not everybody will be able to enjoy this latest update. Mojang announced that this latest version of Minecraft Pocket Edition is dropping support for Android 2.1 and 2.2. You’re going to need Android 2.3 or higher now to play the latest version. Older versions of the game will still work on older versions of Android though.

  • New Fire Emblem: Awakening Trailer Details Character Progression

    All RPGs feature character progression to an extent. Modern RPGs have been streamlining progression, however, as more and more players don’t want to deal with the number crunching and item management involved. One stalwart against this trend of simplification is the strategy RPG. That trend will continue with Nintendo’s latest offering on the 3DS – Fire Emblem: Awakening.

    Nintendo released a new trailer for Fire Emblem: Awakening today that details the character progression system in the title. Newcomers to the franchise can learn all about evolving their characters into the ultimate warrior or mage, while seasoned veterans can get a look at the changes being made to the game system in the newest installment.

    Fire Emblem: Awakening will be made available on the Nintendo 3DS on February 4. It will retail for $39.99.

  • CleanIT Gets Rid Of Browser Surveillance, Opts For Terrorism Button In Browsers

    In September of last year, we brought you word that the European Union was working on a proposal called CleanIT to stop the spread of terroristic content online. The plan called for a number of outlandish proposals such as browser-level surveillance and requiring all Internet users to go by their real names when using online services. Since then, the plan has gone through some changes, including the removal of the more worrisome proposals.

    Ars Technica reports that the final CleanIT report has been published ahead of its final conference on Wednesday. The report discusses methods in which the government, private companies and individuals can help reduce the proliferation of terroristic content on the Internet. The report suggests that EU member states work together to decrease the amount of terroristic content online, while Internet companies should “state clearly in their terms and conditions that they will not tolerate terrorist use of the Internet on their platforms.”

    So, you’ve seen what the government wants itself and companies to do, but what should you, the model EU citizen, do? The report calls for a reporting mechanism to be built into Web browsers so citizens can flag terrorist content:

    Challenge:
    While content portals (like social networks, image or video portals) can offer ‘flagging’ opportunities, other platforms (like hosted websites) often lack such a mechanism. Moreover, there is not one international, user-friendly reporting mechanism available to all Internet users, irrespective of which part of the Internet they are using at the moment they notice what they think is terrorist use of the Internet.

    Best practice:
    A browser-based reporting mechanism could be developed to allow end users to report terrorist use of the Internet.

    In essence, the CleanIT group wants to put a little panic button at the top right of your browser that’s for terrorist reporting. If you see a terrorist Web site, you click the button and the URL is sent away to the Internet police. What could possibly go wrong?

    As Ars Technica puts it, “plenty” could go wrong. The main concern is that nobody can agree on what constitutes terroristic content. Is it a blog post of somebody using violent rhetoric? Is it the Twitter account of a known terrorist cell? Does anybody even have the right to remove such content, or does it fall under free speech protections? Can people abuse the reporting system to have content removed without due process? These are questions that the group will have to answer at its conference on Wednesday.

    The proposals will also face some serious scrutiny at the conference as it has already been reportedly criticized by lawyers, civil rights groups, and even the peer reviewers that evaluated the final report. One of the peer reviewers criticized the CleanIT report saying that it “does not clearly explain how the objective is to be reached… Therefore I have substantial doubts if it possible to achieve the desired objective this way.”

    As the peer reviewer points out, stopping the flow of terroristic content on the Web, or any content for that matter, is incredibly difficult. The U.S’s Bipartisan Policy Center said just as much in a report it published last year about terroristic content online. The report said that the best chance of stopping terrorism online is to reduce the supply and demand for such content. Drawing attention to it, which CleanIT’s proposal may very well do, is only going to further the cause of those who use the Internet to recruit and communicate with other terrorists and ne’er-do-wells.

  • Epic Citadel Shows What Android Can Do With Unreal Engine 3

    Very few Android games could be classified as technical marvels. You could argue the same for iOS, but the platform has at least received a number of technically impressive titles running on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3, including Epic Citadel. Now that very same title has made the jump to Android.

    Epic Games announced that Epic Citadel, its Unreal Engine 3 tech demo, is now available for Android devices. This new version of the title brings with its a new benchmarking mode and updated visuals. The former will be especially useful for those who want to test how Unreal Engine 3 performs on various Android devices.

    The release of Epic Citadel for Android may be hinting that Epic and Chair will be bringing Infinity Blade to Android gamers as well. The series has been tremendously popular on iOS, and it would undoubtedly be just as much appreciated on Android devices.

    You can grab Epic Citadel today from either Google Play or the Amazon Appstore. The iOS version of the game was also updated today with support for the iPhone 5, fourth-generation iPad and fifth-generation iPod Touch.

    [h/t: Droid Life]

  • Firefox Flicks Challenges Filmmakers To Get Mobilized In 2013

    Are you a filmmaker that happens to be a fan of Firefox? Do you want a chance to win a few thousand dollars? If so, you’ll definitely want to submit a film for the Firefox Flicks competition this year.

    Mozilla announced that this year’s Firefox Flicks competition will be open for entries on February 13. The competition challenges filmmakers to create a 60 second or less video “that help tell the Firefox story.” This year’s theme is “Get Mobilized.” Here’s how Mozilla describes it:

    It’s about enabling more people to take advantage of the full power of the Web and giving them better access to easily discover, enjoy and share content that can change their lives. Through Firefox Flicks we are creating energy for our upcoming mobile OS that will deliver on this promise.

    Firefox Flicks 2013 from firefoxflicks on Vimeo.

    Those who decide to make a film have a shot at winning prizes in three categories:

  • Early Entry Awards – There will be multiple chances to win $1,000 for submitting a flick early. The top three early entry submission Flicks will be included in the final round.
  • Regional Winners – One winner from each contest region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia) will win a $5,000 cash prize and one runner up from each contest region will win a $2,500 cash prize.
  • People’s Choice Award – People will be able to vote for their favorite Flick during the People’s Choice Award voting period August 1 – August 31. The three winning Flicks will receive a Firefox Flicks swag bag.

    • If you find yourself interested in the idea of being featured in one of Mozilla’s marketing campaigns, or just winning a cash prize; you’ll want to check out the filmmaker’s creative brief for all the details on the competition. If you find yourself lacking inspiration, you can check out the winners of last year’s competition at the bottom of Mozilla’s blog post.

    The Firefox Flicks 2013 competition will start on February 13 and run through July 31.

  • House Committee Demands Answers From Justice Department Over The Prosecution Of Aaron Swartz

    It’s been a few weeks now since noted activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide. Since then, there has been a lot of discussion in regards to our justice system and how it handles prosecution. The House promised to look into it, and now the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will be doing just that.

    Darrell Issa, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman, and Elijah Cummings, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding a briefing from the Justice Department on the prosecution of Aaron Swartz. Most of the letter recounts the history of Swartz’ case, but the end dives into what the Committee wants out of the briefing:

    Many questions have been raised about the appropriate level of punishment sought by prosecutors for Mr. Swartz’s alleged offenses, and how the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, cited in 11 of 13 counts against Mr. Swartz, should apply under similar circumstances. For example, according to Marc Zwillinger, a former federal prosecutor familiar with cybercrime investigations, “[t]he question in any given case is whether the prosecutor asked for too much, and properly balanced the harm caused in a particular case with the defendant’s true culpability.”

    From there, the letter demands that the Justice Department answer the following questions at a briefing:

  • What factors influenced the decision to prosecute Mr. Swartz for the crimes alleged in the indictment, including the decisions regarding what crimes to charge and the filing of the superseded indictment?
  • What Mr. Swartz’s opposition to SOPA or his association with any advocacy groups among the factors considered?
  • What specific plea offers were made to Mr. Swartz, and what factors influenced the decisions by prosecutors regarding plea offers made to Mr. Swartz?
  • How did the criminal charges, penalties sought, and plea offers in this case compare to those of other cases that have been prosecuted or considered for prosecution under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act?
  • Did the federal investigation of Mr. Swartz reveal evidence that he had committed other hacking violations?
  • What factors influenced the Department’s decision regarding sentencing proposals?
  • Why was a superseding indictment necessary?

    • It’s kind of a long shot, but the DoJ might just humor the House Committee and actually show up. The Department will have to schedule the briefing for a day before February 4. We’ll let you know if the DoJ responds, or it it schedules a briefing. If it does show up, it might yield some interesting results as Issa has proven to be pretty tough on these matters.

    [h/t: The Hill]

  • That Cheap iPhone 5 Will Borrow Design Elements From The iPod Touch And iPod Classic [Report]

    A cheaper iPhone 5 for emerging markets has been hinted at for a while now. Apple has denied all such rumors, but a recent report from iLounge suggests otherwise.

    After revealing pretty much everything about Apple’s latest redesign for the next-generation iPad, iLounge’s Jeremy Horwitz now has the scoop on the cheap iPhone 5 that’s been rumored since early this year. He confirms a number of rumors about the device that we’ve been hearing for a while now, but there’s some new information to be had as well.

    First and foremost, the cheap iPhone 5 will indeed be made out of plastic. That being said, Horwitz says that it won’t just be an iPhone 5 made out of plastic. The new device will reportedly borrow design elements from several products of Apple’s past and present to create a pretty unique device.

    According to Horwitz, the cheap iPhone 5 will still remain about the same size as its more expensive brother. Specifically, the cheaper version will only about half-millimeter taller, half-millimeter wider and a half-millimeter thicker. The display will still be 4-inches, just like the iPhone 5. Since most people won’t notice the size difference, the cheaper iPhone 5 will look almost identical to the current iPhone 5 from the front.

    The device’s design, however, will reportedly change once you start to look at the side, back and bottom of the device. For starters, the curves of the device will be more similar to that of the iPod classic in that the back and sides are flat, but connected by a curve. The volume buttons on the side will also shift from the circular buttons of the iPhone 5 to the elongated pill designs of the iPod Touch.

    Finally, the back of the device will feature a camera, microphone and rear flash that are almost identical to the layout of the iPhone 5. The bottom is also similar to the iPhone 5 in that it features a headphone port, Lightning port, bottom microphone and speaker in roughly the same positions.

    The cheap iPhone 5 isn’t the only iPhone coming out this year. The next iteration, dubbed the iPhone 5S, is also reportedly on the way later this year. Check here for more details.