Minnesota's attorney general will drop the state's efforts to fine underage buyers of violent videogames after a high court struck down a state law as unconstitutional. The Entertainment Software Association, one of the plaintiffs in the case, announced Monday that the state paid $65,000 in attorney's fees and expenses
Bhutan national assembly speaker Nima Tshering has banned Bhutan MPs from bringing laptops into Parliament after seeing them used for playing games.
"I have seen many of our lawmakers playing computer games when others are debating serious issues," he said.
"I have no problem if the lawmakers carry their laptops and use it for data they might need during debates. But I have a major problem if they play games and look uninterested in the proceedings."
Bhutan is a tiny Himalayan country that is slowly joining the modern world. It held its first democratic elections in March and only gained internet access nine years ago. In the last five years, sales of desktops and laptops have risen by about 50 percent. There were no figures about WoW subscribers.
Despite this, MPs have denied the claims. "It is not however true that we were always playing games," an unnamed MP said to the BBC. "We need the laptops because that saves us the trouble of having to carry huge amounts of paper and documents."
Broadband in the UK is a touchy subject: either you're one of the very lucky ones with a great 24/7 connection or one of those with massive contention rates or your ISP is constantly capping your download speeds.
Paying for a broadband package and actually getting what you paid for is not always straightforward and this week Virgin Media got its wrist slapped - again - for ads quoting inaccurate download speeds. Remember, Virgin's already out to get torrent users.
The 'Hate To Wait' ad series in the national press showed a chart of glowing download speeds for different Virgin Media broadband packages but Virgin neglected to mention that its traffic management system could cap those speeds during peak hours.
From 4pm to 9pm, downloaders exceeding a 300MB limit would have their speeds capped, making a joke of the ad that promised that certain 2MB customers could download a 30 minute TV show (c. 341MB) in 26 minutes.
A complaint by rival BT has just been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The ASA said:
"We considered that one of the main objectives of the ad was to highlight the speed with which customers could download a TV show on all three of Virgin Media's packages and, in the absence of any clarifying text, readers were likely to understand that those speeds applied at all times. We considered that the text "Acceptable usage policy applies" did not make the peak time restrictions clear and it would not be unreasonable for readers to expect to be able to download at least one half-hour TV show on the M package, or several half-hour TV shows on the L package, during the five hours of the peak time period without breaching Virgin's traffic management system and having their speed capped. Because that was not the case we concluded that the ad was misleading."
So what does that mean for punters and repeat offender, Virgin?
Fines for Virgin? Free surfing for a week? Apologies? Nothing really. Virgin has been told to make future ads clearer and not to be a naughty ISP in the future. In the meantime, how many hundreds of people signed up to the service on the basis of those ads? Still, it wouldn't be the first time that ISP's fudged or massaged download speed claims and it won't be the last.
The finalists for the SourceForge.net 2008 Community Choice Awards have been announced. ScummVM is proud to be nominated once again for best project in the "Best Project for Gamers" category (also in another one which we don't care that much if we win ;-) ).
Thanks to all our users who voted for us in the preliminaries. You have to vote for your favorite project one more time (hint: starts with "S", ends with "VM") to select the best of the best in SourceForge.net. So head on to the voting place and vote with your SourceForge.net username.
Nanowires being used for memory is hardly a new idea, but a group of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania seem confident that they've found a way to leapfrog the competition, and shake up storage devices as we know them. Unlike other nanowire-based memory methods, their system employs a non-binary form of nanowire memory, which makes it possible to store three bit values (0, 1, and 2) instead of the usual two (0 and 1) -- crazy talk, we know. That, the researchers say, allows for a "huge increase" in memory density, with fewer nanowires needed to store the same amount of information as a binary nanowire-based memory system, which'd also make the actual devices smaller. Of course, that's assuming any of this stuff actually gets out of the lab, which seems to be a long ways off at best.
Remember Viacom suing YouTube and Google for one BILLION dollars eons ago? That's still going on! And while a judge ruled yesterday that while Google doesn't have to reveal its secret search sauce to the multimedia giantface, he did grant Viacom's request for YouTube to turn over records of "every video watch by YouTube users," and that includes their username and IP address. Yeah that's right, Viacom will know every time you watch "Pork n Beans" or need to refuel your day with Powerthirst. (Or watch Viacom's The Daily Show, you bastard.) And like that, the illusion of YouTube privacy was gone.
Mazel tov, Mozilla, for claiming the Guinness world record for most downloaded software in a 24-hour period after 8 million of your minions snagged Firefox 3 on launch day. It's not that big of a feat considering you took the record from absolutely no one, but you sure set the bar pretty high for anyone planning on breaking it.
EA, the makers of the Harry Potter video games, have now released a short trailer for the new Half-Blood Prince video game on Yahoo. You can watch the trailer to the video game, set to be released in November, here.
In addition to that, EA will officially launch the official Half-Blood Prince video game site tomorrow, July 4th.
Warner Brothers has now released high res versions of the photos seen in today's USA Today:
- Ron Weasley
- Draco Malfoy
- David Yates, Dan Radcliffe, Bonnie Wright
- Dumbledore deep in thought
- Slughorn teaches a class
- Harry and Hermione
Additionally, MSN Cine has two more photos online (one of Ron in his Quidditch outfit and another of Draco). Check them out right here. Thanks to BlogHogwarts.com for the tip!
Publisher puts United Ireland song of over Northern Ireland team celebrations
Electronic Arts has today apologised for a culturally sensitive blunder in UEFA Euro 2008 – in which the Northern Ireland football team stand to The Soldier’s Song, traditionally sung at Republic of Ireland sporting events.
A regional newspaper in Northern Ireland reports that fans reacted with ‘surprise’ to hear the anthem represent their national team in the game.
One fan posted a shocked comment on an internet football forum to simply say, "So Northern Ireland has no identity now I suppose."
EA spokesperson Shaun White apologised for the error. He stated:
"At EA Sports, we pride ourselves on delivering rich and authentic videogame experiences. We sincerely apologise for this error."
That apology has been welcomed by NI Sports Minister Gregory Campbell. He said: "Any apology on this matter is most welcome. Obviously there's has been a lack of knowledge on the makers' part and hopefully it will be changed as soon as possible."
The official Northern Ireland national anthem is God Save Our Queen.
Yesterday we told you about the new trailer for the upcoming Half-Blood Prince video game.
As EA promised, the website for the game is now online as well! They also have a release date next to the trailer, which says November 14th. This date actually conflicts with their original announcement of a November 21st release.
Yes, the other day we did tell you that a few of those who work at movie theaters heard about the Half-Blood Prince teaser trailer premiering with The Dark Knight.
Now though, we're hearing a new teaser trailer rumor. Two people within movie theaters have heard stories about the trailer coming with The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor on August 1st.
According to MuggleNet reader Kathleen, Universal pushed to have the Half-Blood Prince teaser trailer in front of Mummy to give a little boost to ticket sales. The teaser poster will be coming a week afterward. MuggleNet reader Michele tells us that her manager spoke with Warner Brothers, who told them that the trailer is to run in front of Mummy and not The Dark Knight.
Again, keep this in the rumor category for now. All of these Half-Blood Prince pictures lately is certainly a good sign of bigger things to come. As always, we'll keep you updated!
The alpha version of Tread 3.0, a Quake series map editor, has been released (including source code). Independent game developers and hobbyists who are looking for an editing tool may also want to check it out since it should provide a good starting point for their own tools (and it's free). This latest incarnation of the editor is unrelated source-wise from its predecessors; it is based on an in-house tool I developed a few years ago
All you travelers coming home tomorrow from your wild and crazy Independence Day weekend vacations, don't be one of 12,000 people who lose their laptops at airports every week. That's right, that ain't no typo—12,000 dudes and dudettes somehow manage to misplace their portable computers every seven days. That's 600,000 machines a year, many containing sensitive information that companies need to account for.
The Homebrew and Emulation Scenes span so many consoles now that it is truly amazing to see so many sites and coders and fans worldwide, a natural progression is to see Homebrew and Emulators going commercial in some form. The excellent releases from the Dreamcast Scene especially from the likes of Dan potter and in particular Feet of Fury show the full potential of what can be done, the somewhat murky waters come in if the original code is by another coder.
Recently the announcement that a donation when buying a Pandora Console will get you access to betas is also a good idea in General but the problems lie if say someone ports for instance PCSX to the Pandora and they get cash but in all fairness the original coder also deserves cash for the work in coding the emu in the first place.
Moving on from that in the Iphone scene there are some coders who have a donation scheme to get beta access to the releases that they are working on. Now yes the coder doing the work to port to say Iphone/Pandora etc deserves some of the takings but shouldnt the original coder deserve some too?
Finally across the Whole Homebrew community theres been some awesome coding contests but when a release is a port or has taken code (no matter how much it changed from the original source) shouldnt the original coder or team get some of the prizes ?
Is the only way forward to have contests with only original coders/work allowed ?
Obviously if you are the original coder then this post means nothing if you port to other consoles or indeed sell as commercial homebrew but its interesting to hear the thoughts of both members and coders thoughts on the items raised.
I usually have nothing but good to say with my dealings with Hong Kong Companys but a few months ago, the end of february to be more precise, it took around 2 weeks to go through (the order was an ipod touch for my daughters birthday) and then it shipped around mid march.
The parcel took less than 3 days to arrive in the East Midlands from Hong Kong (with UPS), on the tracking it then said out for delivery, 3 days later when it didnt arrive we got a tad worried so contacted UPS, they said they would put a trace on it, a week later and some idiot from UPS left a message asking if the Ipod Touch had arrived yet, not only had it not arrived but the idiot phone caller had let slip our daughters surprise birthday present.
After that we eventually got Play Asia/UPS to sort out a claim for the lost parcel, whilst waiting for any news i got a letter from UPS asking for £50 for the cost of delivering the parcel, the parcel that never arrived, this really pissed me off and if the woman had of been of english voice and not some accent i couldnt understand she would have got a round of ****s down the phone.
Anyway went on holiday and arrived back expecting some news but still no news and this is now nearly 4 months, i sent another email and finally the claim had gone through and been settled.
You would think after all this time that i would finally get the Ipod touch, no such luck, play asia contacted me saying the order can now be reopened and order what i like, on checking this i found that they were out of stock of ipods, i then asked if i could have the money returned to my account to spend at my pleasure. they said that leaving the order open was the best way.
after pondering a few more days i asked them to either send me the money back or at least stick it back in my account and which i can draw back away from play asia, they did neither.
They sent me a coupon for the amount owed which means i now have to buy stuff i dont really want to get my money back, what i did was order 2 blueray films expecting the remiander to go back to my account but again they contacted me saying that when the orders had shipped i can get a new coupon for the rest of my owed money.
This really takes the piss and well i am really put off buying anything that gets delivered through a courier, i already paid play asia for packaging and then UPS also charge an extra 50 Pounds (not customs charges)
So my advice get shipping via registered airmail and ditch the crap courier services and watch out for firms who want give your money back when they lose the order. Worst of all no ipod touch and i aint got the original money either.
Hey all, Finally the site is counting Members again properly, the last few weeks with it showing only the likes of 1 to 10 members online has been really offputting, every site goes through rough spells but that was mad, thanks to Martin for fixing that and also fixing the Uploads again. Seems we have a knack for finding problems in vbulletin.
Movie Magic magazine's latest issue includes a really big spread for Half-Blood Prince. They interviewed a variety of cast and crew, who also spoke about the upcoming Deathly Hallows film. Thanks to Magical-Menagerie.com, we have text copies of the interviews.
Production Designer Stuart Craig on the HBP cave:
Movie Magic: Because you have actors performing against the small parts of the cave you have to actually build, what aspects of it did you construct?
Stuart: We built that island, we built the boat that they travel in, and part of the shoreline they leave to get to the island. But they are like one percent of the total that you'll see in the final film.
Producer David Heyman on the Deathly Hallows split:
"You obviously need to find the right end point in the book halfway through," he says. "Each has to be a self-contained unit. Each film so far has been different from the one that preceded it, so we need to do that with Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2. There is the challenge of making two separate films that you want to have an identity of their own while you're shooting them at the same time. That being said, what is exciting , what works in our favor, is taht we have a very clear sense of what the two films are and what the thematic underpinnings of each part are, which in itself will provide a distinct nature to each of them."
Theme Park Insider has shown us a new interview they conducted with Steve Jayson, the executive chef at Universal Orlando Studios. Of interest to Potter fans, he talks about what you may be seeing at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park next year:
Jayson confirmed that he and his staff are working on new food service concepts for Universal's Harry Potter land.
"We've visited Scotland to get a real close, personal look at the cuisine that they eat," Jayson said. "We're going to have one restaurant that's going to have a nice selection of items that you would probably expect to see in that vein of cooking, and I think it is going to be great."
It's clear that great research is being conducted by Universal to make sure the Potter experience is authentic as possible.
Cheap Solid State Drives (SSD)s is what we all want and Samsung is aiming to make them bigger and cheaper this year by green-lighting the mass production of 128GB SSDs.
Samsung has already upped the capacity ante this year by announcing its 2.5in 256GB SSD.
Samsung said yesterday that it has started mass producing both 1.8in and 2.5in laptop and desktop drives claiming they will offer the usual SSD benefits alongside low power requirements of approximately 0.2 watts in standby and 0.5 watts when in use.
The Samsung MLC-based SSD has a write speed of 70MB/s and a read speed of 90MB/s - which although not as fast as single-level-cell (SLC)-based SSDs now in mass production - will be cheaper. Samsung claims the new drives will also last 20 times longer than the usual 4-5 year life span of a notebook PC hard drive. Hmm, 100 years. I'm guessing you'll have it filled long before then.
The drives have a 3.0Gbit per second interface and measure 100mm x 69.8mm and are just 9.5mm thick. Samsung expects sales of SSD units to increase 800% between now and 2010, which should do wonders for the price.
Judge Dava Tunis, the referee in Jack Thompson's November trial has recommended that he be disbarred... for life.
"The Florida Bar has recommended disbarment for a period of ten (10) years," the Judge says in a report obtained by Games Politics. "This Court respectfully declines to follow the Bar's recommendation...
"This case involves factual findings of cumulative misconduct, a repeated pattern of behavior relentlessly forced upon numerous unconnected individuals, a total lack of remorse or even slight acknowledgement of inappropriate conduct..."
The 169-page report says that over the eighteen months of litigation, the Judge has seen no evidence that Thompson is amenable to rehabilitation or even appreciates the need for it.
Tunis then makes the following recommendations; that Thompson is permanently disbarred, with no leave to reapply for admission, and that he pays disciplinary costs currently totalling at $43,675.35 [£22,100.27].
Is this the end for the gaming industry's favourite lawyer? No doubt we'll see a response from the man himself soon.
There were many leaps forward announced today by the producers of the ELANS – an awards show that has for the last two years honored video games and animation with big-name hosts such as William Shatner (1st year) and Seth MacFarlane (2nd year) – not the least of which being their addition of Visual Effects award categories to their next show taking place in Vancouver on Saturday, February 28, 2009.
Adding VFX to their categories isn’t the only big step forward the ELANS are taking; the 3rd Annual ELAN Awards will also become the first ceremony of its kind to have all of its categories open to world-wide submission.
“Expanding the ELANS to international content is an exciting next-step,” says Ian Verchere, Producer/Creative Director/Faculty, Masters of Digital Media Program. “Vancouver’s video game, effects and animation industries compete on the world stage for commercial and critical success, so it’s appropriate for the world’s best games, animation and special effects to compete for the ELANS on a Vancouver stage.”
Producers Holly Carinci and Jack Weatherell also announced today their Board of Advisors for their 3rd Annual ELAN Awards 2009. The luminaries behind the ELANS this year are:
Anthony Brown, Managing Dir of Bus Development, Seven Group;
Doug Binkley, Marketing, Seven Group;
Doug Campbell, President, Spin West VFX;
Ian Verchere, Creative Director, Masters of Digital Media Program;
Michael Matrick, Tech Business Advisor;
Kay Gruenwoldt, Head of Title Marketing, North America, Nokia;
Kelly Zmak, Radical Entertainment, President;
Tarrnie Williams, General Manager, RELIC Entertainment
The President of Radical Entertainment, Kelly Zmak, explains his reasons for accepting a position on the ELAN’s Board of Advisors: “The ELANS represent a unique opportunity for the industry to honour and acknowledge the talents and artistry of the people who make games,” says Zmak. “We do this as our chosen profession: The ELANS provide a perfect setting to celebrate this powerful form of entertainment and art.”
Kay Gruenwoldt, Head of Title Marketing in North America for Nokia, adds, “The ELAN Awards have already been a highlight for us in Vancouver this year and we are looking forward to next year’s event. With roughly 3.3 billion mobile devices in the market today the world is ready for mobile gaming and our N-Gage games are ready for the awards.”
The 3rd Annual ELAN Awards 2009 have already acquired a great partnership this year with the Seven Group. The Seven Group provides end-to-end technology solutions and has designed and built the infrastructure for some of the biggest Video Game, Visual Effects and Animation studios in the world. The Seven Group will be overseeing the technical aspects of the ELANS and their surrounding events and galas ensuring a flawless, state-of-the-art production.
“We see the ELANS as representing the best-of-the-best and the pinnacle of recognition for excellence in this spectacular industry,” says Anthony Brown, Seven Group’s Managing Director of Business Development. “We’re so very proud to be a part of it; to be able to show our support and to participate in such a global movement.”
Doug Binkley, Seven Group’s Marketing Director, goes on to say, “The ELANS allow this incredible industry to have recognition and applause from peers and public alike. More and more people, businesses, sponsors, up-and-comers and organizations want to take part.”
Brown summarizes: "The ELANS are a truly red carpet event. Everything is first class, with "A" list hosts, tuxedos and evening gowns, and the upper echelon of industry big wigs in attendance. Our company got more exposure from the ELANS than from any other event we have ever been part of. It’s about time that this industry was recognized for its contribution to arts and entertainment. We will be a part of the ELANS for many years to come."
Via: shacknews
DrumMania and Guitar Freaks publisher Konami today filed suit against Harmonix parent company Viacom over patent violations related to Harmonix's rhythm title Rock Band.
Konami claims that the company's patent for a "musical-rhythm matching game," filed in the United States circa 1999, predates and supersedes Harmonix's 2007 patent filing for a "game controller simulating a musical instrument."
According to Bloomberg, Konami seeks cash compensation and an order to block the use of Harmonix's inventions. Viacom is waiting to receive the complaint before responding to the allegations.
Konami released the Japanese rhythm arcade games DrumMania and Guitar Freaks in 1999, with Guitar Freaks being initially ported to the United States later that year. The company is now planning to release its own Rock Band-style game titled Rock Revolution.
It turns out that forum favourite quip 'fanboy' is almost 100 hundred years old. That's the excuse of Merriam-Webster anyway, which has only gone and stuck it in the dictionary.
Merriam-Webster's description of our favourite comments section insult is "a boy who is an enthusiastic devotee (as of comics or movies)". By the look of certain forum members (you know who you are) we reckon they'll soon enough go back and add videogames to that description.
If the inclusion of the word makes you die a bit inside, that should probably know that last year Merriam-Webster added "woot" to the dictionary. There just aren't enough people making up good words these days.
"As soon as we see the word used without explanation or translation or gloss, we consider it a naturalized citizen of the English language," said Peter Sokolowski, editor at Merriam-Webster.
"If somebody is using it to convey a specific idea and that idea is successfully conveyed in that word, it's ready to go in the dictionary."
If it's a slow word year in 2009 they'll probably add omgwtfbbq to the book.
GameTrailers continues its Star Wars Retrospective by covering the first person shooter games in the galaxy far, far away's oeuvre. This means that there's going to be a lot of Kyle Katarn in this episode, one of the best-known characters outside of the movie sextilogy -- especially to gamers. So get comfortable for this 20-minute episode, or don't, nobody's forcing you to sit down and watch it. *waves hand* Sit down and watch it. This is the retrospective you're looking for.
AOL Moviefone has released their list of the top 25 movie villains of all time. Lord Voldemort, played by Ralph Fiennes, came in top of the list with the following description:
"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is the most powerful dark wizard to ever wave a wand, and he schemes to enslave the whole Muggle world. His slithering presence has been minimal in the films so far, but we've all read the books, so we know how much more evil he'll become."
Alistair's Australian. Alistair's also a total Metal Gear fanboy. Alistair was at a wedding the other day, and while there, spotted an uncle he hadn't seen in years. An uncle he thinks looks just like Old Snake. And while we'd normally just smile, nod and remind Alistair that he's just got Metal Gear on the brain right now, we must admit: that's a spot-on likeness.
Edge, the world's premier brand in videogame journalism unveils its new site, Edge Online (www.edge-online.com).
Launching in time for the industry's leading event, E3, Edge-Online.com is the de facto destination and source of global videogame news and information. The new site will complement the content available to readers of Edge monthly magazine.
The new site offers videogame industry breaking news, detailed research and senior game industry analysis. Edge-Online.com features first-person commentary from senior game industry figures. Game industry professionals can also interact and communicate with one another directly, and share their news and views with opinion-formers, analysts and the world's leading game industry journalists.
"Edge is the most trusted, admired brand in videogame journalism," said Dan Morris, Publisher of Edge-Online. "It's right that this single brand represents our industry, globally, at the highest level, offering a forum for the most senior business and creative people in our business."
Publishing Director of Edge, James Binns added, "We are thrilled that Edge now has an online home that reflects our quality, vision and voice. Edge has gained unprecedented access, a team of dedicated, smart journalists and a high level of trade and consumer respect. We're ready for our next evolution."
Edge Online is the evolution of Future's Next Gen (www.next-gen.biz) which launched in 2005 and, in 2008, became the market-leading game business website. Available on newsstands for 15 years, Edge has been the favored magazine of videogame professionals around the world, winning countless awards. Alongside Edge, Future publishes a cross-platform portfolio of games media - encompassing magazines, websites and live events.
During the first week of Edge Online's launch, consumers will have a chance to win one of 150 three-month subscriptions to Edge magazine. For more details visit Edge Online (www.Edge-Online.com)
Following months of hearsay and conjecture BT has finally confirmed that it'll be digging up roads this year to kick-start plans to lay down fibre optic cables so it can offer super-fast broadband.
The £1.5bn project should offer top speeds of 100Mb/s and it claims has the potential to reach over 1,000Mb/s in the future.
Ian Livingstone, BT's chief executive enthused "Broadband has boosted the UK economy and is now an essential part of our customers' lives. We now want to make a step-change in broadband provision which will offer faster speeds than ever before. This marks the beginning of a new chapter in Britain's broadband story."
About time really, since we're already behind much of the rest of Europe in the speed stakes, but Virgin Media seems to have a face-on about it since it points out that it already has a nationwide fibre optic network in place.
Admittedly Virgin's speed isn't as fast; it plans to offer a 50Mb/s service later this year to 12 million UK consumers, but when you bear in mind the unlikeness of BT actually getting close to 100Mb/s as a sustainable rate, along with the fact that it won't be available until 2012, it makes you wonder if they can't work together a bit more effectively to spread the cost.
Lots of visitors have been emailing in with some new updates concerning the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park in Florida. Screamscape, a theme park fansite, has this report that talks about the changes:
A new large wall was put up in front of the Dueling Dragons area this week, blocking off all access to The Enchanted Oak, Flying Unicorn, the major restroom facility and the main Dragon’s Keep store area. Dragon’s Keep merchandise has now been shrunk down to work from a merchandise cart by the lockers and is mostly only selling the smaller items. The new bridge across the lagoon to Jurassic Park has now opened and they have staffed (for now) an employee to stand there with a bullhorn telling everyone that the old pathway now dead-ends at Dueling Dragons.
Back in late June, we broke news of a "teaser trailer" coming with The Dark Knight in IMAX on July 18th. Last week, we learned that this teaser trailer is actually a 15-second preview.
A MuggleNet reader who works at an IMAX theater has provided us with a description of the trailer, as well as the one line of dialogue in it.
A black screen with Dumbledore saying "Once again I must ask you to do the impossible, Harry." After that, the title is displayed as well as the release date.
The E3 Media and Business Summit opened its doors this week in Southern California, and developers from all major video game companies are there to demo their upcoming products.
Electronic Arts is one of those present, and one of the games they are showing off is Half-Blood Prince. A few new photos were revealed at E3, and they can be viewed over at GamerShell.com.
Blog Hogwarts is reporting that the Half-Blood Prince teaser trailer will be arriving with The Mummy on August 1st in the United States. This information came to them from Warner Brothers Mexico.
While this is by no means an official confirmation (an official one would be from Warner Brothers' US offices), it lends credibility to Mummy reports we received last week from a couple of movie theaters.
According to the Orlando Sentinel all of the closed Lost Continent features last week will be refurbished and given new themes appropriate to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. They believe that the Enchanted Oak could be turned into The Three Broomsticks.
Just when you thought it was safe to dump your CD collection in a river and wave goodbye to the spinning optical audio disc for good, Japan comes along and moves the goalposts.
If you've ever wondered whether the equivalent of 'high definition' for audio would rear its head, you're probably a very forward thinking person. Japanese firm Memory-Tech, who manufacturer a third of the countries recordable discs, has announced the arrival of HQCD technology.
Apparently it allows audio to be stored far more accurately than conventional methods, offering far cleaner sound and another level of quality to help beat away the insurgence of digital media for a little while longer.
It's only actually confirmed for Japan, though Memory-Tech is making two million HQCDs a month in mind of commercial release in September.
There are no details of whether it'll appear elsewhere but we can't see it being a particular success, mainly because CDs themselves (or now, high-quality encoded audio) are perfectly adequate for 99% of listeners anyway. You'd have to either be a real audiophile or in the music business to decide that any increase in quality would be worth new equipment and even greater expense.
Also, he says he found Intel's diary and is totally telling everybody about that one thing. But seriously, we think Kris Kaspersky is being a bit of a tease here. He claims to have found a flaw in Intel's processors that would allow a hacker to bust up on a computer using JavaScript or TCP/IP, with no regard for what operating system the computer is running... only he won't say what it is.
He's planning on unveiling the attack at the Hack In The Box conference in Malaysia this October, where he says he'll show working code that can take control of computers, all of which he plans to release publicly. The attack takes advantage of known errata in chips, which most vendors have a workaround for in BIOS, but not all. XP, Vista, Linux, BSD and Mac operating systems are all vulnerable, so we all get to run around panicking until October -- unless somebody figures it out first.
While you might think you have a pretty sizable subwoofer, when it's compared to this crazy Italian man's subwoofer, it's downright pathetic. That's because he essentially converted his entire basement into one ridiculously large subwoofer. Update: OK, so this is a few years old (circa 2000), but I'd never seen it and it seems like many of you haven't either. So I'm leaving it up, but if you are offended by things that were made a few years ago you've been warned.
The "Real Total Horn" consists of two cavities, each three feet deep and 31 feet long, functioning as horns and driven by eight 18-inch woofers each. It releases more than 110 dB/1W/1 meter sensitivity starting from below 10 Hz aimed at the listening position. Let me tell you, there's not a better suited sound system in existence for producing an effective brown note.
And really, frequencies that low are barely audible, but I have no doubt that this thing will make action movies shake his living room way more than any other sub out there. I'm not sure I'd want to do this to my own home, but I'd certainly give it a test run.
Notice that your freshly-purchased N75 smells more like a week-old head of cabbage than a bundle of brand new plastic, glue, and circuitry? That's gross, and no, we don't want to touch it (seriously, get that thing away from us). Turns out you may not be alone, though -- a new class-action suit filed in federal court alleges that CommClub, an independent retailer in California, was selling used Nokias for AT&T's network as brand new devices.
For whatever reason, AT&T and Nokia are also named as defendants in the suit, though we're not sure exactly what role they played in CommClub's potentially nefarious dealings; at any rate, the class is looking to bring home some bacon for "injuries" suffered as a result of the bait-and-switch. You're going to go smell your N75 now, aren't you?
This is the second announcement for the RetroEmu Summer Coding Competition 2008. Which is running from June to August 31st. RetroEmu Coding Competition - Summer 2008 :
RetroEmu.com is proud to announce it's first ever coding competition!.
To celebrate our grand opening we are offering some fantastic prizes to give away to the winners of our Summer coding competition. These marvelous prizes include :
1st Place : Nintendo Wii Console + Wii Sports or 2GB Asus EEE PC (CELM-900M).
2nd Place : 2GB iPod Shuffle + $100US via PayPal.
3rd Place : Indiana Jones collection DVD or $50US paid by PayPal.
All prizes are brand new and sealed and bought exclusively for this competition.
How To Enter :
To enter this fantastic coding competition all you need to do is have knowledge of programming/coding in any language.
You can pick from the following category's for your entry :
Games
Emulator
You can enter right now! The competition starts today and ends August 31st 2008 at 23:59 GMT.
Place all your Entry's/Submissions in Coding Competition Submission forum please.
As you're being assaulted with the blasts of light and color from the E3 showfloor and press conferences, we thought a small sliver of reality might be in order. What you see above is the one and only E3 press room at the LA Convention Center.
Yeah, yeah, we hear you, it's a little unimpressive. But it's got all the amenities you could hope for (Free WiFi! ... Electricity!) and it's the conduit through which we bring the magic to you. As such, we felt compelled to give it its due.
A plane ride would be a lot less boring with WiFi to help pass the time. (Think of all the History Channel programs you'd be able to download and watch from iTunes!) Finally -- American Airlines has announced it will begin testing in-flight WiFi in the coming weeks.
AA will deploy WiFi on 15 jets; testing could take as long as six months, according to a ComputerWorld article. Supposedly the testing focuses on the performance of the WiFi rather than flight safety -- which is puzzling since in-flight wireless gaming was banned in Japan in fear of interrupting plane instruments. Technology-wise, is the U.S. ahead of Japan for once? Probably not, but we'll just have to wait and see.
We've been waiting for this day ever since Opera first announced its Opera Mobile 9.5 web browser back in February. Today, it's out for a beta 1 launch. In other words, it'll be buggy but likely far more useful than the browser already installed on your touchscreen-based (PocketPC) WinMo professional phone. The initial release includes support for double-tap zoom, landscape flip, off-line page save, tab-like browsing, auto-URL complete, and a Google-search bar to name just a few of the 9.5 features.
More functionality will be added later including Google Gears and support for Flash video on WinMo and Symbian devices. CNET already has the hands-on video review up for your pickings. Better yet, download and install for yourself and tell us what you think in the comments below.
Have you ever bought a game, and then not managed to get it working on your machine? Have you ever had to resort to download a no-cd crack to get it to run? I know I have, and I know that the games industry considers me a massive pirate due to buying their software, then running it in a way they don't like.
Which makes this thread over on the Ubisoft forums all the more entertaining. When faced with a version of Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 that wasn't working on lots of machines, ubisoft did exactly what you would have done. They went and got a no-cd crack off the internet and released it as an official patch.
The file was removed from the site over a week ago now and the matter is being thoroughly investigated by senior tech support managers here at Ubisoft.
Needless to say we do not support or condone copy protection circumvention methods like this and this particular incident is in direct conflict with Ubisoft's policies.
Microsoft's shares have fallen 6 per cent in after-hours electronic trading in New York, following the announcement that current quarter's predicted earnings are USD 0.47 to USD 0.48 per share, less than the expected USD 0.49.
The company posted the results for its quarterly earnings yesterday, and predictions for the next quarter, which were worse than many analysts expected.
Microsoft accounts for the overall poor results by placing the blame on its online division losing USD 488 million during the quarter, due to a loss in advertising revenue.
This comes at a time when the company's games division recorded a profit for the first year.
"This is the area where we're seeing direct impact from the economic slowdown," Microsoft's chief financial officer Chris Liddell told the BBC.
Happy 40th birthday, Intel! Now that you're over the hill, we'd suggest buying a Porsche, building completely custom one-off chips for Apple, or in some other way jeopardizing your financial well being in order to actualize pent-up childhood dreams, but we'd say AMD's recent struggles are just about the best present you could've asked for. Sure, the EU is trying its best to put a damper on things, but don't let that get you down, your best years are still to come. Maybe.
Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron has been out since April, but Dell wanted to do a whole bunch of testing and add support for stuff like fingerprint readers, Bluetooth, HDMI and MP3/WMA/WMV out of the box before rolling it out on their Linux systems. It's shipping on 'em as of this second.
Talking to Gamasutra at E3, Sega of America president Simon Jeffery has been discussing pulling back from a traditional Japanese reliance on "a small number of huge games", and suggesting: "We're trying to make sure that we don't make the mistake of being yet another Japanese company trying to be a Japanese company in the West."
As part of a larger Gamasutra interview, Jeffery, who has made strong Western-focused deals with companies such as Obsidian and BioWare in recent years, explained his business thinking on the matter as follows:
"We've strongly tried to make Sega of America feel like it's not a Japanese company. We want to resonate better with gamers in the casual market a lot better than I think Japanese companies have been able to do traditionally in the last few years.
The output from Japan now seems to be very geared around a small number of huge games, that do resonate with the Western market, but most Japanese content just doesn't anymore.
So that's a big change from 5 or 6 years ago, it's a pretty big change from the last generation. We're trying to make sure that we don't make the mistake of being yet another Japanese company trying to be a Japanese company in the West.
We want to build our success through building products in the West for the West, and so there are not very many Japanese staff in the office of Sega of America, and we have a lot of autonomy now."
Concluding, Jeffery noted that this strategy was both approved and encouraged by the Japanese owners of the company, understanding the differences in the markets:
"This was part of the initiative by Sega of Japan. They made the conscious initiative to have the Western operations have a Western management team in place."
The full Gamasutra interview with Sega's Simon Jeffery will be published on the site in the near future.
For more than a decade the Electronic Entertainment Expo was a must-see event for game retailers and media types. While it's true that in recent years E3 had become an exercise in wretched excess, that was, in fact, a large part of its charm. By day E3 featured massive, massively noisy game displays laid out end to end to end in the cavernous main halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center . By night dozens of game industry parties kept L.A.'s bartenders and sushi makers off the unemployment lines and gave a generation of scruffy game journalists an all-too-brief taste of the good life. In 2006, its final year as an extravaganza, a reported 80,000 people streamed past E3's exhibits.
But beyond that, E3 put the modern video game business on the map. You could be certain of national T.V. coverage from all of the major networks. The top newspapers were there as well. The media coverage of the show's bright lights, booth babes and nonstop bells and whistles made mainstream America sit up and take notice of a form of entertainment it had previously held to be child's play, and for geeky children at that. Of course, the gaming press went absolutely nuts during E3 week, pushing screen shots and trailers and interviews and whatever else it could get hold of to millions of eager readers.
To paraphrase Mick Jagger, I used to love you, E3, but it's all over now.
High-street shop HMV will soon begin selling games in-store without charging VAT.
HMV Delivers will let shoppers use kiosks to order games, CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray films without paying the UK Treasury tax of 17.5 per cent, according to The Guardian.
It's thanks to a cheeky loophole many online retailers already take advantage of, including HMV.com and others such as Jersey-based Play.com. This allows you to snip the VAT charge when importing products under GBP 18 into the UK from outside the European Union. The UK Treasury set this up to minimise burden on marginal trade.
When you use the terminals the product will be shipped free from tax haven Guernsey, where lots of cows live. HMV has promised the items on sale will be restricted to things you cannot get on shelves, like out-of-stock games.
The retailer said it made GBP 50 million from VAT-free sales last year, which equates to a loss of around GBP 8.75 million to the tax man.
It's that event that occurs about twice a year in which we ask you, our loyal users, to go out and replay all your favorite games supported by ScummVM. In addition to all the games supported from 0.11.1, we have several new ones for you. The Bizarre Adventure of Woodruff and the Schnibble, Lost in Time, The Legend of Kyrandia: Book Two: Hand of Fate, The Legend of Kyrandia: Book Three: Malcolm's Revenge, and Drascula: The Vampire Strikes Back have support added since then. Furthermore, the DOS version of Waxworks and the Macintosh version of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream are now supported.
So, what are you waiting for? Go out and start testing! Grab a daily build of ScummVM and run through the games and note any bugs you see on the way (which you should post on the bug tracker). Once done, post that you've completed the game on the forum post so it can be posted on the wiki page. Be sure to list the version of the game, language, and platform.
It’s been awhile since we’ve heard any good MagiQuest rumors linking them to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter expansion. Today we’ve heard from sources claiming that not only will there be a custom Harry Potter version of the MagiQuest system up at the theme park, but Universal will also make special interactive Harry Potter themed suites available at their hotels, similar in concept to the MagiQuest suites installed at the Great Wolf Lodges where guests can use their wands to activate several installed special effects. And if your not up on just what MagiQuest is, then please do check out my complete review of the main MagiQuest Myrtle Beach facility just added a few days ago.
Now if all that wasn’t enough to wet your appetite, we’ve been piecing together a few rumors about the new Potter themed ride. While we still don’t know the exact story being told, we have heard that we are likely to encounter the Whomping Willow tree as well as take a trip into the Shrieking Shack. (According to what I’ve been told by Potter experts, the fighting Whomping Willow tree acts as guard to keep people away from a secret passage into the Shrieking Shack, so this makes sense.
You may have seen Mamma Mia and feel an urge to download the entire Abba back catalogue from your nearest torrent site but, Whoa There! - park those Dancing Shoes because you may find yourself blacklisted and in receipt of a hamstrung Internet connection for your trouble.
The UK's Big Six ISPs have agreed a plan with the British music industry - brokered by the government - to curb music piracy in a big way. According to the new plan - to be revealed in full later today - service providers will send warning letters to thousands, and maybe tens of thousands, of homes across the UK telling them they have been found illegally downloading copyrighted material.
I can see a lot of confused parents looking at these letters - and their teenagers - trying to figure out just who's been downloading Slipknot albums on the sly.
If that fails, then sanctions are being proposed that will see offenders' Net speeds severely curtailed [no more big files] and also subject to 'traffic filtering' which will see increased monitoring of their file downloads to check for unpaid for content. It is estimated that 6.5 million UK folk downloaded music illegally last year.
The Big Six - BT, Virgin Media, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse - have agreed to this plan because the government has promised to shelve even more Draconian measures that would have seen a '3 strikes and you're out' rule introduced, where persistent offenders would have their broadband connection cut-off.
Former Undertones singer and now chief exec of British Music Rights told The Times:
"This is something of a step into the unknown for the Internet providers, music industries and ministers. But we can't go on without it - no business can survive after losing as much revenue as the music industry has."
So, has Big Brother finally landed for the online music industry here?
Warner Bros. confirmed today that the worldwide debut of the trailer for the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, will take place via satellite on Tuesday, July 29th, from 9:00 - 9:15pm EST.
Since most of us don't have the proper equipment to catch the satellite feed, this likely means the trailer will be placed before The Mummy, which is in theaters the next day, July 30th.
Not to be outdone by those crazy Danish bastards out on the isle of Samso, Science Daily reports an equally crazy group of Missourian bastards in Rock Port now generate all their electricity using wind turbines. Rock Port went completely wind-powered last week, making use of the 75 wind turbines spread out across three Missouri counties, and local experts are excited about the potential for wind power throughout the state. However, PopSci thinks it won't be so easy to make this a widespread trend in the US
Rumors have been floating around about it for quite some time, but it appears that all systems are go for the entire Star Wars franchise to be re-released in the 3D format. DreamWorks Animations CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg confirmed the details in a recent interview with Comingsoon.net saying "Lucas is excited about it" and "He isn't going to put a product out, I think, that isn't anything other than first rate."
Hold onto your dollar bills, y'all -- the WhiteKnightTwo is set to be unveiled (and swooned over) on Monday. We knew the fabled space tourism vehicle was set to be unwrapped this month, but knowing that said event is merely hours away just gets our juices flowin'. Richard Branson and "other dignitaries" are preparing to officially launch the ship at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California (a short drive from Zzyzx, we hear), and we're still being led to believe that test flights should begin as early as this fall. Hey, at least you know what you're doing next year if your ship comes in.
Since early May, rumors of the teaser trailer's theatrical release have been circulating around the internet. First it was Prince Caspian, then it was Kung Fu Panda and Get Smart, then Dark Knight, and at last The Mummy.
Now finally, after a delay that didn't meet past Potter release schedules, the teaser trailer for Half-Blood Prince will be released tonight at 9 PM EST on AOL. We'll be posting the link to it here on MuggleNet the moment it goes live, followed by screencaps in our gallery. MuggleCast will be live tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 7 PM EST with trailer analysis and your live calls about the film.
Get ready everyone! The surge of Half-Blood Prince media is about to begin.
DC Comics is to handle comic adaptations of Capcom series Resident Evil and Devil May Cry, the Batman company has revealed.
Details on the two series are scarce at the moment, but both are being handled by DC Comics' WidlStorm imprint. Comic nerds, please tell us what that is in the comments below.
"We're ecstatic that Resident Evil is returning to WildStorm, where we have already established deep roots into the mythos of this world," said Wildstorm boss Hank Kanalz. "We can't wait to continue, and bring a freshness and excitement to the property to match the amazing things they are doing with the game."
And on DMC, Kanalz said that the series is a "perfect fit" for the sensibilities of the studio, and it has "such terrific inspiration from the anime and games and we intend on meeting the exceptionally high standard of quality that has been set for this."
It certainly chose the two Capcom franchises with the most potential for story expansion, if you ask us.
The Sega Genesis console once had a rabid fan base. Simon Jeffrey, president of Sega of America, recalls a time--about 20 years ago--when Sega was cool and known for producing "edgy" content.
Now, like some awkward adolescent, Sega (other-otc: SEGNF.PK - news - people ) has been spurned by its old fans for churning out ill-received Sonic-branded games and kid-focused content.
After its Dreamcast console failed to chisel out a space for itself in the videogame marketplace, Sega bailed out of the hardware business in 2001 to focus on game publishing. It's been a battle ever since. While Sega's portfolio of Sonic games and licensed fare such as "Iron Man" may not resonate with the company's fans, the strategy has been paying off: Sega now is consistently among the top six publishers in terms of market share, which Jeffrey says is growing annually. And with a firm base to work off, Sega can finally focus on reinventing itself.
Forbes.com sat down with Jeffrey to discuss the future of the company.
Forbes.com: Who do you see as Sega's competitors?
Simon Jeffrey: Over the last few years we've been competitive with the likes of Capcom, Midway and Eidos. We've doubled our market share year on year. We're now looking at THQ as our nearest competitor in terms of market share. We don't intend to be an Activision or an Electronic Arts--one of those juggernauts. We're actually really happy where we are. We can be small and agile and yet extremely profitable and successful. It really feels like this year we're competing with the next tier up, and THQ is a good company for us to model ourselves on and go after in terms of market share.
What's your plan of action?
We have a strategic road map that identifies areas we want to play in and the number of acquisitions we want to look at. We're fairly detailed about that--it's been one of the ingredients in our recent success. We've tried to look backward before we look forward. We look at everything that we have done wrong and the industry has done wrong, as well as looking at the companies who have grown successfully and figure out what they've done to grow successfully.
How do you view Activision now that its merger with "World of Warcraft" developer Blizzard Entertainment will create the largest company in the videogames industry?
[Activision Chief Executive] Bobby Kotick is one of the smartest people in the business. The way he's constructed Activision is really admirable. So many companies in this business want to be No. 1 right away. They want to grow, and they want to grow right now. They blow it because they burn out.
Bobby has grown Activision in stages over a long number of years to get to this point. And it's very calculating and very clever the way he's done that. Activision has also managed to be the first company in this business to market games properly. Anyone who can turn a hardcore brand like "Call of Duty" into a 10 million unit seller … is outstanding. I think that Activision is going to take some catching and their profitability is unmatched.
With Activision's success in mind, how do you view Electronic Arts' ongoing attempt to acquire Take-Two Interactive?
It feels like EA kind of needs [Take-Two], but it probably shouldn't have made it so public that it really needed it. I think that it's losing some investor confidence; the stock price is at a three-year low. And it seems like EA has been the petulant child instead of the professional market leader. However it's EA, and it's really good at coming back.
L ooking at these two juggernauts--Activision and EA--where has Sega learned the most lessons?
I think from everywhere. We're in the fortunate position of being fairly comfortable [as] the No. 6 publisher. We don't feel like we're forced to compete. We're not forced to try to make rash acquisitions just to get to No. 1--that affords us to sit back and look at what's going on everywhere.
Again, I think one of the issues and mistakes that this very young industry has had over the last decade has been not spending enough time to reflect on what's going on. That's something which we're really trying to be very cognizant of and be aware of what's going on in the marketplace and be reactive to it.
Where do you want Sega to be in five years?
Five years is a long time in this business, but I really hope we're going to be a top-five publisher. I can't believe us not being a top-five publisher on a global basis, not just in North America. I think that's something [that] will be tremendous.
Where I would really like for us to be is at the cutting edge of every platform, to be the go-to publisher for Sony with its next system and with Microsoft with its next system. We kind of are like that with Nintendo right now, and thanks to our relationship with Apple, we are kind of like that on the iPhone at the moment. But I want to really get that same kind of recognition with Microsoft and Sony. We have solid relationships, but when they're launching a new platform I want them to come to Sega to build their killer app.
How are you going to get there? Through acquisitions? Development deals?
I think at the moment, because of the climate, we're looking at development deals. However, if the right opportunity came along, we would happily be there. We still have plenty of cash in the bank and a willingness to spend it for the right thing. But recently there have been some insane developer acquisitions with some insane valuations, and suddenly all the developers think they're worth ten times what they actually are. They're all kind of talking silly currency right now. It's not a good climate for studio acquisitions.
That said, we're constantly looking to forge new relationships with development talent. A lot of the bigger, high-profile developers have been acquired. That's kind of a cyclical thing in the industry that fosters birth at the other end. You're getting a lot of start-ups on the other end from real high-end talent coming out of internal studios at the big publishers. We're really interested in fostering a lot of relationships with start-ups and existing talent.
What's the most exciting thing happening in the games industry right now?
The most interesting thing is the mass acceptance of gaming. It's gone from being kind of a nerdy, exclusive niche activity to probably the preeminent form of entertainment in North America. Pretty much every kid born in North America is going to be a gamer, which means that the market is only going to get bigger from here. I've been in the game business for 22 years, and that's the most noticeable thing: this tangible cultural feel that gaming is huge and everyone wants to be a part of it. I think the gaming business is in a healthy state right now. There will continue to be casualties, but that's just like every business.
It looks like the FCC's investigation into Comcast's questionable traffic management is turning up a number of interesting details, the latest of which comes from AT&T's Robert Quinn, who told FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell that, "use of a P2P file sharing application would constitute a material breach of contract for which the user's service could be terminated." Quinn was apparently quick to add, however, that AT&T hasn't yet kicked anyone off the network for using P2P. Still, Commissioner McDowell apparently intends to use AT&T's statement to argue against the FCC's forthcoming order that contends Comcast secretly downgraded P2P traffic, saying that Comcast's throttling of traffic isn't as bad as AT&T blocking it all together.
The merits of that arguement aside, as TechDirt points out, given that AT&T's beef with P2P is that it makes use of "continuous (rather than bursty) transmissions at high data rates," their position does open up a number of interesting questions about streaming apps like Pandora, which are similarly data-intensive but, last we checked, still working just fine on AT&T's network.
