hi5 Mobile Launches in 26 Languages

mobile has arrived. For all of those that have been waiting patiently for this social network to have a dedicated and optimized version of its service on your mobile device, here it is. And for a bit of boasting on hi5’s end, the social network’s mobile presence spans 26 different languages upon launch, setting out to create a new precedent for a global reach on the mobile front.

This makes a great deal of sense for a network like hi5, that has a large international user base, which translates into a need for ready mobile access, as many other countries use their mobile phones more often than a PC.

So what can you do on hi5’s new mobile network? Send messages, update your status, share photos, and add new friends, to name a few features. As far as media-sharing goes, users are pretty well covered, though I’m interested in seeing how networks will continue to push the boundaries in regards to third-party applications and advertising therein. As hi5 already supports OpenSocial, and has just announced its added support for Widgetbox’s OpenSocial applications, it’s clear that hi5 is ready to offer more options to both its developer community and user base at large.


From other ends of the spectrum we’re seeing development from services like Frengo that are setting out to make third-party applications more adept and integrated into mobile devices for broadened support, and such efforts could fit in well with hi5’s focus and desire to really promote its mobile offering as a full-on alternative to PC users on a global scale. Supported mobile devices include the iPhone, Nokia, Motorola, Blackberry, LG, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.

VIA : mashable

Andy Roddick vs. The Undertaker

USA Network will show the U।S. Open tennis tournament followed by WWE's Monday Night Raw tonight, and if you think tennis and professional wrestling would be hard to market together, then you haven't met the creative geniuses at the WWE:

Another Game Innovator Is Shut Down By Copyright Claims

This is a new commercial of iPhone 3G, it talks about App Store.

Over the past couple months we have covered the tale of Scrabulous, the popular Facebook application which brought the traditional game of Scrabble to the online environment. After more than nine months of threats, Hasbro, the owner of Scrabble, finally created their own version of the game and, more importantly, sued the makers of Scrabulous.

Now, an eerily similar situation is taking place through the iPhone App Store. The maker of a Tetris-like game called "Tris" reports that due to legal action by the Tetris Company, he is going to remove the application from the App Store. Apple, he says, demanded he resolve the dispute personally or they would "take action." Although the developer believes he is on fairly firm legal ground, as a poor college student, he cannot afford the time or money to defend his application. He calls the approach "little more than petty bullying."

This scenario and Scrabulous are indicators of the increasing importance of the platform operators who have the ability to shut down applications (and in the case of Apple, even disable previously installed applications). The developers who are building on these platforms are beholden to gatekeepers which, more often than not, err on the side of over-enforcement.

Airtel techies dare iPhone hackers

When it comes to iPhone hackers, techies at Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel expect to have the last laugh. They claim even the most deadly hackers on the planet won’t be able to crack the codes that support the iPhone’s Airtel applications with rival company SIMs.

So, even if a hacker manages to make voice calls from an Airtel iPhone using the SIM of a rival GSM operator, he would be denied access to both exclusive icons – ‘Airtel Live’ and ‘Airtel Apps’-- which are gateways to the full spectrum of Airtel applications built into the iconic gizmo.

This means a potential hacker of an Apple iPhones procured from Airtel won’t get to access to either content or entertainment features on Airtel Live -- a customised portal designed purely for Airtel subscribers.

With no access to Airtel Live, he can’t access any text, audio, video, static images, music or gaming options available on the preloaded Airtel Live portal application.

Neither does he get to use the powerful Google search engine.

Worse, the hacker also draws a blank if he tries activating any super secure applications like mobile payment (m-Check) that can otherwise be accessed by Airtel users by clicking the ‘Airtel Apps’ icon on the iPhone.

m-Check, would typically enable a user to manage his Airtel account or even do money transfers from his iPhone. Confirming this, Bharti Airtel’s IT director Jai Menon, who is also chief information officer (CIO) of Bharti Enterprises told, “Even if a hacker figures out a way to make voice calls from an iPhone procured from our stores using a non-Airtel SIM, he will not be able to access any of the ‘Airtel Live’ or ‘Airtel Apps’ features built into all the iPhones sold by Airtel.

We’ve built in suitable levels of security to ensure both applications remain out of bounds for hackers. All iPhones distributed by Airtel will run on OSX (Version 2) OS which also powers Apple notebooks worldwide.”

He adds, “Airtel’s IT group has worked with Apple for over a year to uniquely evolve a bunch of operator-specific applications on the iPhone. In fact, Airtel is perhaps the only mobile operator besides Australia’s Optus that has evolved operator-specific applications on Apple’s iconic phone.”

Incidentally, “developing operator-specific iPhone applications was pretty much a stealth exercise that transpired by leveraging Airtel’s service delivery platform, which is a $100 million tech initiative,” said Menon.

india times

Burning Blu-ray soon be standard in Windows

In the near future, an update of the Windows operating systems should allow the user to burn Blu-ray without resorting to a third party software. Dubbed Feature Pack for Windows Storage, the necessary extension is currently in beta test. Ultimately, it should be proposed for versions XP, Vista and Windows Server 2008. A time supporter of HD DVD format led by Toshiba, Microsoft seems to have taken the party to fully follow the lead of the Blu-ray technology, developed by Sony in particular.

Alongside this interface offering support for burning Blu-ray, Microsoft offers within the Feature Pack for Windows Storage other two extensions: the first, called Active Storage Platform, will restrict a password or certification ' access to a USB device, while the second will allow थे management of smart cards and type ICCD CCID।

source: techarena ,

techarena

Intel gives 'turbo' boost to Nehalem

After politics, place the ads produced. In his keynote, Pat Gelsinger, current vice president of Intel company, has devoted much of his time in Nehalem, the new Intel architecture that will make his first steps with the Core processors i7 (see The successor of the Core 2 Duo Core will be the i7). Pat Gelsinger first indicated that the first i7 Core processors will arrive well in the market at year-end. While the characteristics of the Nehalem architecture have already been widely discussed, to start with four hearts on a monolithic design enjoying each HyperThreading technology, integration of a memory controller DDR3 on three channels, using a new bus system, the QPI, or the addition of 4.2 SSE instructions.



Intel today lifted the veil on the features in terms of energy management processor said. While Intel processors benefit all of the current clock gating, the Core i7 inaugurate the Power Gating, a name that implies a change in the manufacturing process. The idea is to effectively extinguish anything that might be, and each one of hearts, independently, all with a minimum leakage current between transistors. Côté operating frequencies, each heart has its own frequency modulation and voltage and Intel will function with Nehalem Turbo Mode appeared on Penryn processors for laptops. When an application does not use all hearts, hearts are turned off unused and frequency of the first two hearts increases automatically. By default this increase corresponds to a predetermined ratio will it be possible to modify the Core i7 Extreme processors, although this parameter is also dependent on the TDP processor.

SOURCE

Online Multiplayer, Cross-Platform Gaming Coming to iPhone

Neutron, Exit Games' cross-platform multiplayer gaming service, just got upgraded with iPhone support, the company announced today.

The service is said to include real-time, turn-based and tournament multiplayer options, game lobbies and various matchmaking capabilities, buddy lists, leaderboards, profiles, in-game voice and text chat and last, but certainly not least, billing and in-game microtransactions.

“The iPhone presents a very unique opportunity for mobile online gaming as it is both specifically designed for online services and comes with the App Store, an already successful and accessible distribution channel”, said Christof Wegmann, CTO of Exit Games. “Neutron’s support of this new and innovative mobile device will ensure that iPhone game developers have a means to take advantage of its wireless connectivity and add social gaming features.” Wegmann further adds, “The iPhone will surely establish itself as a dominant mobile gaming platform and we’re pleased to support multiplayer and social features in games developed for the device.”

Exit Games today announced that its cross-platform multiplayer gaming service, Neutron®, is now compatible with the iPhone™. This new compatibility update allows game developers to integrate online multiplayer and social gaming features into iPhone games by using Neutron technology, as well as cross-platform capabilities between an iPhone and other mobile devices, PCs and game consoles.
Features of the Neutron multiplayer and social gaming platform include, among others:
• Real-time, turn-based and tournament multiplayer options
• Game lobbies and various matchmaking capabilities
• Buddy lists, leaderboards, profiles, etc.
• In-game voice and text chat
• Billing and in-game microtransactions

“The iPhone presents a very unique opportunity for mobile online gaming as it is both specifically designed for online services and comes with the App Store, an already successful and accessible distribution channel”, said Christof Wegmann, CTO of Exit Games. “Neutron’s support of this new and innovative mobile device will ensure that iPhone game developers have a means to take advantage of its wireless connectivity and add social gaming features.” Wegmann further adds, “The iPhone will surely establish itself as a dominant mobile gaming platform and we’re pleased to support multiplayer and social features in games developed for the device.”
The fully managed Neutron service platform minimizes risk and time-to-market for even the most complex multiplayer and community game development projects on all platforms. Neutron 5.0 SDKs provide a broad variety of connectivity features out-of-the-box, and together with its hosting services it enables game developers to integrate sophisticated online features at minimum time and cost investment. Neutron continues to leverage large user communities, supporting online gaming on the mobile, PC and console platforms including J2ME, BREW, Windows Mobile, Flash Lite, Blackberry

Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Pro

The Logitech Wave Pro might catch your attention: its "wave" design "cradles your hands" for added comfort. The keys themselves are shaped and laid out in such a way that your hands won't have to move much - if you know how to type properly, that said. If the hands aren't moving, the palms have to rest on something soft: a cushioned palm rest area. Each of us will have different keyboard preferences, so you really have to try one for a few minutes.

You're plenty familiar with the first half of the equation, but the new critter promises to last up to six whole weeks on a full charge, and the included USB plug enables users to charge and work if they're okay with a temporary tether. You'll also find a 1,600DPI sensitivity rating, MicroGear precision scroll wheel and eight programmable buttons. Look for the happy couple to land in the US in October and Europe in mid-November for $129.99, while the mouse alone will go for $79.99 two months earlier in each region

PS4 and Xbox '720' to arrive in 2011-2, estimates Crytek

At a keynote session during this year's GC Developer Conference, taking place in Leipzig, Germany, Crytek president and CEO Cevat Yerli revealed his belief that the new next generation of consoles from Microsoft and Sony will hit the market in 3-4 years' time.

"The PlayStation 4 and Xbox '720' will arrive in 2011 or 2012, we think," said Yerli. "But this is just our estimate - we don't know, and even if Microsoft and Sony told us, I couldn't say because it would be under NDA.

"But we think in three to four years' time, although there are good reasons why it should be 2010 already...but we'll see."

Yerli, giving a talk on "The Future of Gaming Graphics", also explained Crytek's plans for a new version of its in-house engine to be released in 2012, but stated his belief that the effective current gaming maximums would remain at resolutions of 1920x1080 and 60 frames per second until that time.

He also added that he believed GPUs and CPUs were on a collision course, with the former becoming more effective at general computing, and the latter more effective at parallel tasks - and that software such as DirectX 11 would help that collision to happen towards the end of 2009.

The first title to use Crytek's current development technology, CryEngine2, was last year's Crysis, with a new title - Crysis: Warhead - to be released in a few weeks. CryEngine 2 took 25 engineers four years to put together, and used the original CryEngine as a base - which itself took an average of 20 engineers three years to build.

source gamesindustry

PSP Modifcation Dictionary

Alot of people are asking questions such as "whats a rom?" or "whats firmware?" and i decieded to make this lil dictionary for psp related terms. its a work in progress and i expect people to contribute to it.

A

Ad-Hoc: a localized network used to play multiplayer psp games

B

Brick: Psp rendered dead. firmware corrupted

Bricker: A program designed to brick a psp, or render it useless

C

Capture.prx: plugin that enables screenshots on psp

Cintro: Movie played at the psp's boot instead of a image

Corrupted data: file that is corrupted that psp with this firmware can´t read.

CSO: Psp .iso file that has been compressed to take up less space on the memory stick

Custom Firmware: Independently coded versions of Sony's firmware, utilizing addition features, the ability to play the latest games, and access to homebrew applications

Cold Boot: Opening image you see when you first boot the psp (such as the sony of america image on stock psps)

Convert: Changin file format to another

CWCheat: PRX file that allows the user to change aspects of a game and modifiy its parameters

CXMB.prx: Plugin for ctf themes that has to be enabled in recovery mode if you wan`t to have ctf themes

Ctf theme/format: Type of custom theme in another format

D

Dead Pixel: defective pixel that remains unlit on the psp

Devhook: Program used to launch .iso files and homebrew as well as launch newer UMD's

Downgrader: Program used to turn back a psp's firmware and make it useable for homebrew

Dump: Extracting information from a source, such as firmware or umd

E

Eboot: a .pbp file that allows the psp to execute homebrew applications

ELF: executable and linking format - now appears as the default binary format on operating systems such as Linux,
Solaris 2.x, and SVR4

Epsilon Bios: Bios files used with the Undiluted Platinum mod chip

Emulator: program used to imitate other video game systems
related: Roms

Exploit: a vulnerability in the psp's firmware that allows homebrew and downgraders to be used

EXP: export file - Some programs will use the .EXP file extension to denote an export from that program

F

Flash: Chips built into the psp that stores the firmware. Accessed via custom firmware mods

Flash Player: media player used to play .flv files. aslo supports SOME internet flash websites

FLV: Format used by the psp's flash player. files downloaded in .flv format are viewable from the memory card

Firmware: The psp's embedded operating software. Stored on a flash-rom module

G

GTA: Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. Used for downgrading 3.03 to 1.50 firmware

Gameboot: Video seen at the very beginning of the psp's boot cycle

H

Homebrew: Homemade games or applications coded by a independent programmer.

HENC Homebrew Enabler Revision C. Application used to launch homebrew in newer firmwares
aslo: HEND

HEND: Homebrew Enabler Revision D: Application used to launch homebrew in newer firmwares. updated version of HENC

Hello World: Small homebrew program used to show homebrew capibilities on newer firmwares.

I

Infastructure: psp network used to find access points and get on the internet

Iso: digital version of a optical based video game. similar to a rom

IsoCompressor: computer program that can convert game file(iso,cso,dax etc.) to another file.

INI: initialization file, or INI file, is a configuration file that contains configuration data (i.e. idiom terms)

J

K

Kernal: Component used to control resources within the psp.

KXploit: Method of running homebrew by utilizing 2 folders. one with a % and one without. EX: snes_TYL and snes_TYL%

L

LCD: Liquid Crystal Display. the type of screen the psp uses

M

MAC Address: Number assigned to the psp in order for it to be identified on a network

Magic Memory Stick: Moded memory card with files to unbrick/install custom firmware on offical firmware psp. Pandora battery is also needed to unbrick/install custom firmware.

Magicgate: Sony's copyright protection for memory sticks

MP4: MPEG-4. Video format used by the PSP.

Memory Stick: The psp's memory card. comes in various sizes, from 32mb all the way up to 8gb

MS: Abbreivation for Memory Stick

MSO: Root of the memory stick

N

O

Open Edition(OE): type of custom firmware

P

Pandora battery: Moded battery which is in use to unbrick/install custom firmware on psp with officall firmware. The magic memory stick is also needed to unbrick/install custom firmware.

PBP: .PBP files are used by the Sony PSP console to launch software such as a firmware update

POPS: Sonys built in Playstation (ps1,psx,psone) emulator. 3.xx firmware and up

PMF: Process Management Files - define the metrics that an application could collect during runtime

PSP: Sony's handheld portable gaming system. PSP stands for Playstation Portable

PSPVideo9: Computer program used to convert video files over to mp4 to be played on the psp

Proof of Concept: a coders prototype towards a future program

PRX: a .prx file. external plugin used in custom firmware to help customize the functionality and looks of the psp's firmware

Ptf format/theme: Very simple type of custom theme in another format
Q

R

RAW: raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of a digital camera or image scanner

Recovery Menu: Menu used to alter various settings on a psp w/ custom firmware installed. accessed by holding the R button at boot

Rip: Slang term used when extracting information from a optical source, such as a CD or DVD. similar to a Dump

Root: Uppermost folder on a memory card

Rom: digial version of a cartridge based video game
related:Emulators

RCO: File extension, located resources file. holds the data of functions the psp have, such as text, sounds, icons, or actions

S

Semi-Brick: When the psp enters a partial brick state, including but not limited to xmb problems, blue screen of death (BSOD) and a "black screen" at boot. occurs only in Custom Firmware psp's

Stuck Pixel: red, green or blue pixel caused by a defect in the psp's screen

T

TA-082: Motherboard update by Sony to attempt to prevent downgrading

Theme: Collection of icons, sounds, font, and wallpaper to check the look of the psp's xmb

TIFF: Known exploit using the PHOTO menu in a psp

U

UMD: Universal Media Disk. Sony's chosen format for games and movies

Undiluted Platinum: Psp Mod Chip. Allows two different firmwares to be used

USB: Universal Serial Bus. The prefered method of getting data on and off of a memory stick. requires a usb cable

V

VSH: Folder within psp's flash module that contains files related to the psp's theme

W

WLAN: Wireless Local Area Network. Links the psp to a wireless router

WMA: Windows Media Audio. compressed audio format supported by the psp

X

XMB: Cross Menu Bar used to access settings, music, videos and the internet in addition to the psp's settings

Y

Z

source afterdawn

Need for Speed goes Undercover in November 18

EA CEO John Riccitiello caught during an investor conference in June, saying that the next Need for Speed game, Need For Speed Undercover, would be a "much better game" than Need for Speed ProStreet. Rather than focus exclusively on racing, the game would sport a stronger mission structure and "narrative hook" akin to the 2002 Jason Statham action flick.


EA officially announced Need for Speed Undercover for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Nintendo DS, PC, and mobile devices. True to Riccitiello's word, the street racer will feature a number of live-action cutscene sequences, and the publisher has secured the talents of starlet Maggie Q (Balls of Fury, Mission Impossible III) to lead its efforts. Ms. Q will play the role of Agent Chase Linh, who oversees players as they infiltrate the underground racing scene to upend an international crime syndicate.

As noted by Riccitiello, Undercover will feature gameplay that resembles 2005's NFS: Most Wanted, emphasizing car chases, underground racing, and highway battles. The shift in direction, according to Riccitiello, was possible because EA's Vancouver-based Black Box is no longer being "tortured" by a one-year development cycle. GameSpot will have its first impressions of the retooled racer next Wednesday.

Need for Speed Undercover is expected to drift onto retail shelves in North America on November 18, with a European release following on November 21.

FIrst images of Batman game

he first screenshots of Eidos and Rocksteady's Batman game have appeared on the internet - and they look fantastic.

Batman: Arkham Asylum - which has nothing to do with the Bale films - is a dark and gritty action-come-stealth game based on the DC Comic books.
Combat focuses on both stealth and speed with the use of only three buttons; attack, throw and stun. There are also plenty of boss battles in the game, which apparently requires you to use various gadgets to keep Batman on top.

"Batman: Arkham Asylum offers players the chance to battle Gotham's worst villains with Batman's physical and psychological strength in a graphically distinct and story-driven game," said Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment boss Martin Tremblay.

"We look forward to working with Eidos on expanding DC Comics' world-renowned character Batman in the game space with a noticeably different feature set in an incredibly dark interactive environment," he added.

Final Fantasy XI Boss Takes At Least 18 Hours To Beat?

There's one boss that stands above all others in Final Fantasy XI. Pandemonium Warden. Never seen it myself (never even played FFXI myself), but I'm assured he's a tough cookie. So tough, in fact, that when the guild BeyondTheLimitation tried to take him on the other day, they ran into some problems. Namely, that it was taking hours to defeat just a single form of a monster that had already changed form 20 times. In the end, the guild had to call it quits, because after 18 hours of combat members of the party started throwing up and passing out from exhaustion. 18 hours? We get it Square, tough bosses are tough, but 18+ hours of combat isn't fun. It doesn't sit well with the game's own warning message, either.

BOMB-USB Terrorist of design

Description

A BOMB on your Desk!!

EA unveils DS 'puzzle-platformer'

EA has unveiled a new DS platformer that (in its words) combines "the action of an adventure game with the challenge of a puzzle game." Interested?

The fantastically-named Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure separates puzzle and platforming elements between the DS's two screens, and you can choose to switch between the two at any time.

As you progress through the 30-plus levels in Hatsworth, you're challenged with completing puzzles and defeating puzzle enemies in order to gain power ups, health, and energy to charge up the moustached adventurer.

Hopefully the first screenshots to the right will help demonstrate a bit clearer how it works.

Evolution or revolution? Suspense builds for Wii 2

Nintendo fans rejoice: there may well be a new arrival in the group's family of consoles sooner than you think. Satoru Iwata, president of the Japanese computer games group that has been lauded for its ability to attract new waves of gamers, has admitted that the company is hard at work on a follow-up to the motion-sensing Wii.

Mr Iwata said this week: “The hardware team started work on the next thing as soon as they were done with their previous project, but what they think up doesn't necessarily become a product.”

However, the speculation that has followed Mr Iwata's hint demonstrates the interest in Nintendo's next offering.

Fans around the world are salivating over how far the concept of motion-sensitive accessories might go: a full body suit that would capture a player's every movement is one suggestion, as is the possibility that Nintendo would dispense with the television as its chief means of displaying games and favour projecting everything on to the inside of a mask. There is even talk of a mind-controlled console that could take the form of a claw-like unit strapped to the head, which would translate brain activity into movement.

And it is not only gamers who have been known to hyperventilate when considering the possibilities of Nintendo's next offering.

Investors, who have goggled at the increase in the company's profits — which surged in the first quarter by 33.7 per cent to 107.3 billion yen (£507 million) and buoyant share price, may have been forced to reach for the smelling salts when considering the issue of what will come next.

One question that is exercising the investors is how Nintendo will handle the economics of that project. Will it just be a technological beef-up of the Wii platform — a Wii2 — or will the famously innovative company take things in an entirely new direction?

And amid the adulation, some gamers, too, are wondering whether the Wii has reached its limits. Its graphics are perfectly good, but the machine's lack of computing horse-power is evident when its games are compared with those on the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360.

Analysts are worried that the company's historical practice of “front-loading” its software line-up — squeezing at least 70 per cent of the most attractive titles into the console's first two years - may force the timing of a Wii2 more fiercely than in the past.

However, it is not just the traditional gamers who are thinking beyond the Wii. The ever-growing “casual” gaming community - those people tempted into the world of video games for the first time by either the Wii or Nintendo's handheld DS console - may not necessarily be satisfied for much longer.

Hiroshi Kamide, a games analyst at KBC Financial Products, said: “The casual gamer's tastes today are pretty basic but they won't be in five or ten years' time.

“The ones who came into gaming with the Wii are going to become more demanding and Nintendo will not be able to fob them off with the level of graphics and processing it is offering in the Wii today. Nintendo has got to make a pretty tough decision about whether the next Wii is going to be evolution or revolution,” he said.

To maintain its margins, the bill of goods - components, assembly and shipping — for the Wii2 would have to be about $250 (£130) initially and fall to about $100. If Nintendo were to launch its next-generation Wii within three years, $250 would probably buy it about the same graphics and processing power as are currently included in the Xbox 360. By then, Microsoft may have stepped up a level of sophistication.

Dawn Paine, marketing director at Nintendo UK, is confident that there is still a “huge appetite” for the Wii in its current form across the world.“The Wii is still finding its way into new markets. It is being played more in public areas like pubs and we heard recently that it was used in a care home,” she said.

VIA : business.timesonline

Cop-Confiscated PS3 Replaced with 360

Dustin Waller, of Cleveland, N.C. (this is where my mother, I shit you not, foxhunts) got a Playstation 3 from his fiancee, who bought it either used or refurbed for $350 from an independent games retailer at a mall down the road in Salisbury. Tuesday, Waller gets a visit from the police up the road in the other direction, Statesville, who said the PS3 was stolen goods. They'd tracked him after he unwittingly signed on to PSN using the previous owner's ID. After the police confiscated the PS3, Waller went back to the store to get a refund. He got a 360 instead, and thinks the cops asked the store to provide it.

This case is kinda funny because a PS3 gamer, who says he's "just not had luck with Xbox consoles," ends up with a 360 essentially by police action. But it's fascinating for the police work involved. The Statesville police had been investigating a string of burglaries and this PS3 was among the property stolen. Find the seller and they can unravel the rest of it, of course. So they were watching for that PSN ID to log on, and when Waller went looking for some PSN games, the detectives tracked his IP address, and then got a search warrant to get records from his ISP.

Waller is not the suspect, the guy who sold it to the mall retailer is. Originally Waller went back to ask for a refund and was told that was against store policy, and left empty-handed. The store later gave him a 360, which Waller thinks was done at the prodding of the Statesville cops. But in terms of actual value of the two consoles, Waller estimates he's down $150. Plus he was just getting the hang of the SixAxis (kidding).

Anyway, Waller took the story public because he wanted the retailer to take some responsibility for checking out those who sell it used items. And it's useful advice for you folks too. If you notice anything fishy about a refurb you bought, get on the phone with the seller and/or the po-po, before they get a warrant and come to you first. Because they are total Microsoft fanboys

[ via ]

Microsoft: Square Wanted FFXIII on 360

The question that many gamers were asking after Microsoft's E3 press conference was "How did Final Fantasy XIII end up on the Xbox 360?" Way back in July, Microsoft Global Marketing Manager Albert Pennello explains:

I think the most obvious reason that they made the announcement is just looking at the success of our console...Square has done games for us in the past, and I think there’s a point where Square just has to look at the Xbox 360, the install base and attach rates that we’re seeing and actually has to make a decision on their own that it’s the right thing to do for them...

I think it’s easy to assume that something’s going on behind the scenes, I think the more obvious answer is we’re doing really well and the game creators want their games to be where the most people and the most consoles [are], and right now that’s the Xbox 360.

For third party publishers, multi-platform makes sense. Still rather curious why it's not on the Xbox 360 in Japan, though...

GMC to launch its upgraded pc case 'R-3 Corona Color'

GMC announced the launch of its upgraded pc case 'R-3 Corona Color' in Korea market, which is available in hot-pink, lime-green and ocean-blue.

Featuring vertically-equipped ODD, the R-3 Corona Color adopts a blue LED ring which appears on the front panel brings out the simplicity. Suggested price is 45,000(KRW).

GTS World Racing on iPhoneTM

A demonstration of GTS World RacingTM for iPhone