Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Interview, Part One - Network World Fusion
Uncharted 2’s out on October 13th and the multiplayer demo launches this week , so we caught up with Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells and creative director Amy Hennig for an over-the-shoulder peek at the design process. Amy Hennig: [Laughs] A good

The Zeebo Console’s Price Drops to $223 - Softpedia
To match the recent price cuts all major consoles have been going through, less popular ones are forced to also drop prices. In this context, Brazilian manufacturer Zeebo announced that its console’s new price would be of BRL 399 or $223, as opposed

Resident Evil 5 Substitute Edtion Will Feature a Playable Jill - Softpedia
If there are some out there who didn’t get enough of the “Mission Failed. You’ve died” endless scenario in which Resident Evil 5 put players, then there is some good news for them. Sony first announced Resident Evil 5 Substitute Edition at a

Sony explores Uncharted territory with motion picture demos - Thetech Herald
In a move that clearly shows modern videogames have become mainstream media and an intrinsic part of popular culture, Sony Personal Entertainment has this week announced it intends to unveil its newest exclusive PlayStation 3 game in various U.S

Sony claims PSP Go is superior than the iPhone - Techradar.com
Sony’s pocket-sized PSP Go is finally out in the UK this week, with SCE ditching the unpopular UMD disc format in preference of digital downloaded games from its on the web store. And while Sony has come under fire for not making the entire PSP back

PC game sales stable as portable consoles soar - Local
In the first six months of the year, more than 2.7 million games to the value of 940 million kronor were sold. Game Sales in the first half of 2009 decreased by 4.6 percent in figures and 10.4 percent in value compared to the same period in 2008

Universal praise for Uncharted 2 - MCV
Consumer media outlets went live with their reviews for Sony’s Uncharted 2 overnight and the universal praise for Naughty Dog’s title points to a smash hit for the publisher. Scores of note include straight 10/10’s from both CVG and Eurogamer

Interview: EA, Criterion Vet Murray Forms Indie Hello Games, Talks Joe - Gamasutra
Tiny UK studio Hello Games has announced its first title, Evel Knievel-inspired stuntman bike racer Joe Danger , on its way to digital platforms. The studio founder is former EA and Criterion’s Sean Murray, who’s held lead programmer and technical

Hands-on with Modern Warfare 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction at X’09 - Globe and Mail
V ideo game types descended on a ritzy bar in downtown Toronto Tuesday for X’09, an annual Xbox event at which Microsoft and its software partners show off upcoming games, services, and hardware. I stopped by for a couple of hours, and while I didn

Six million sales targeted for ‘FFXIII’ - Digital Spy
Final Fantasy XIII is expected to sell over six million copies worldwide. The previous Final Fantasy sold the same figure during its lifetime and publisher Square Enix hopes that the follow-up will perform better, according to Kotaku . It is also

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Superior (a year) late than never, eh Fitbit? This time last year, there was quite a bit of buzz stirred up by a tiny gadget promising to monitor exercise intensity, distances traveled, sleep patterns, and calorie consumption. This pedometer with a degree and a 3D motion sensor has been incubating a lot longer than initially projected, but the first few units have finally trickled out to their eager users today. The entire device is essentially one large clip, attaching to any bit of clothing you’ve on you, while its base station can wirelessly collect data and upload it, via a pc, to a free on the web tracking dashboard. Add in the OLED display and a quoted battery autonomy of 10+ days, and the $99 price starts to appear pretty reasonable.

[Via medGadget]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wearables

Fitbit tracker starts shipping, ready to monitor your fitness, sleep, piety originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone, App Store

If you’ve been waiting patiently for the Dropbox app [iTunes link] to hit the App Store, your wait is over. The app has arrived, and brings with it the simplicity that Dropbox users have come to know and love.

Since Dropbox itself is a free service, it’s a pleasant surprise to see a simple, easy method for creating a new Dropbox account right off the bat if you don’t happen to already have one. The app just asks for a name, e-mail address and password, prompts you to accept the terms of service, and creates the account. During my testing, I did encounter a problem where I would receive a nondescript “Account creation failed (null). Please try again.” message, which I’m guessing might be due to high load on their servers. Still, this isn’t an encouraging encounter for new users.

Once logged in, everything worked pretty smoothly. On first login, You are presented with a brief welcome document that highlights some of the features of the app. Backing out of the document will take you to your Dropbox, which quickly lists any of the files and folders you might have in there. The app features built-in document preview for several types of files, including PDFs, text documents, spreadsheets, pictures and videos. You can also tag files as a favorite by tapping the star at the bottom of the file viewer, which adds the item to the favorites panel and caches a copy locally on the device so that it’s immediately available.

An unexpected feature is the capability to take photos, video, or use existing media and upload them directly to the Dropbox. This could definitely be handy if you need to take a quick video and have it available on another machine without having to plug in your phone and wait for it to sync. Also unexpected, but incredibly welcome, is the large amount of documentation that’s available from inside the app’s settings panel. In addition to giving you general details about your account, the settings panel offers a link to watch a video about how Dropbox works, take a tour of the features, or browse their complete online help library, without having to leave the app. As many apps fall short in this area, it’s refreshing to see such detailed documention available, let alone right from the app.

A couple of side notes: As I mentioned above, the new user signup does not appear to work properly sometimes. I’m guessing this will be fixed in short order, though. You can log out of your Dropbox account by tapping the Unlink iPhone from Dropbox button on the settings panel, but beware that you will loose any favorites you have stored (the app does warn you of this). And finally, when you do logout of your account, the app just disappears from the screen, as if it crashed, even though you’re successfully logged out. In my eyes, these are minor issues (well, aside from the signup problem), and will likely be addressed with future updates, but still good to watch out for.

All in all, this is a very well done, simple app that connects you with an already great (and free) service. It’s available now in the App Store for free.

Dropbox the iPhone app has dropped originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dropbox the iPhone app has dropped originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to the latest tracking study provided to Gamasutra by OTX’s GamePlan Insights, the current hardware price drops have had a “significant” impact on software purchase intent. “That stated, Modern Warfare 2 continues to post impressive metrics More

Whether you recognize this question from 1989’s “Batman” or not, you can enjoy Rocksteady’s newest addition to the world of comic book hero video games, “Batman: Arkham Asylum.” This latest incarnation of Batman - released on the PS3 and Xbox360 last More

Take a trip through post-apocalyptic America with Monkey and Trip in Enslaved, a new action-adventure game coming in 2010 from Namco Bandai and developer Ninja Theory. Enslaved takes place more than 150 years in the future, where the world has been More

The “Deal of the Week” promotion offered by Microsoft continues with another game on sale. After the price cut that Pinball FX got last week, now it’s time for Guitar Hero World Tour DLC to give value for less of a price. Tracks that at one time More

“The Beatles: Rock Band.” The name alone should grab the attention of any Beatles fan or Rock Band junkie. This new game from Harmonix was released on Sept. 9, and is available for XBOX 360, Wii, and Playstation 3. “The Beatles: Rock Band” is in many More

New York, NY – Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. ( NASDAQ: TTWO ), is proud to announce that Rockstar Games and Timbaland present Beaterator is now available in North America for Sony’s PSP® (PlayStation More

Sony put on display quite a lot of new things at the Tokyo Game Show and one of the most overlooked of them was the presentation of the PlayStation Room, which is now headed to the PSP handheld . It seems that the fresh social space is set to arrive More

TOKYO – Prices in Japan tumbled at a record pace in August, intensifying concerns that deflation could undermine the country’s fragile economic recovery. The country’s key consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, fell 2.4 More

Free Realms developer Sony Online Entertainment said this week that it opened its previously in-house only Usability Lab services to outside companies, in order to provide user-centric feedback for product development. “By opening the doors to the More

Company: No. Photographer: You sure? Looks kinda creepy from here. Company: Take the picture, Brian. Here’s what you get when you take a BlackBerry and replace the screen with a trackpad – a nice remote control for an HTPC. It’s compatible with More

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Continue reading Adafruit’s DIY ‘less lethal’ weapon looks cool, doesn’t really work

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Adafruit’s DIY ‘less lethal’ weapon looks cool, doesn’t really work originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s Tuesday and the Apple Store is down — but only for North America at the moment. So hold tight, begin sifting through the latest Apple rumors and check back with us at 0830 New York time when all (or nothing) will be revealed.

Update: ‘Twas nothing, but it sure was fun while it lasted.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Apple store outage incites tipping riot originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know, sometimes at Engadget, we feel compelled to cover a story not because it’s particularly new, or newsy, or relevant to the topics of the day. Sometimes, you just have to cover something because it’s amazingly cool. Enter this totally awesome video from the musician Denkitribe, wherein the DS, Korg DS-10 software, the software’s formant synthesis, and the natural talents of stated musician are used to replicate the vocals from Daft Punk’s hit “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” There’s not much we can put in text which this doesn’t lay out in song. Check the whole thing after the break… you’ll thank us later.

[Via Technabob]

Continue reading DS, Korg DS-10’s formant synthesis used to create Daft Punk vocals, general awesomeness

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Gaming

DS, Korg DS-10’s formant synthesis used to create Daft Punk vocals, general awesomeness originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone, App Store

Users of Tweetie, the popular Twitter client for both Mac and iPhone, have reason to be excited: a new version of the iPhone app, Tweetie 2 (aptly codenamed “Bigbird“), is confirmed to be on the way.

In a preview of the new version, Steve Kleinberg of ChicagoNow detailed his experiences with beta builds of the upcoming release. From the screenshots provided, it’s clear that several interface improvements have been made, including a swift menu that provides simple access to several new features while posting a tweet. Other improvements include the ability to send video tweets, persistent session handling that restores the app to its previous say, conversation threading, draft management, and geotagging.

While Steve’s review advocates that the changes and improvements make Tweetie 2 feel like a whole new app, Tweetie developer Loren Brichter indicates that it really is — it’s a complete rewrite from the original app. In addition to the major features, the new version also boasts integration with several 3rd party services, and a host of configuration options, from new gesture options to custom Twitter API settings.

Of course, not everyone will be happy with the update. There’s already a stir among beta testers over the app’s use of pinstripe backgrounds on the profile and single tweet views. Also, there’s the issue of cost: Tweetie 2 will set you back $2.99, as it is being offered as a new app instead of a free upgrade to existing users. When it comes to upgrades, most desktop applications follow a pattern where minor updates (such as upgrading from version 1.0 to 1.1 or 1.1.2 — often refered to as “point releases”) are provided free of charge, and major updates (from version 1.0 to 2.0) usually require the user to buy the new version of the software.

With iPhone apps, however, Apple does not provide a system to allow developers to do this. Developers can release upgrades and bug repairs as free updates to their applications, but if they invest a lot of time into a major update to their app, they’ve to submit it as a new, different version of the application rather than an upgrade to the old version, and there’s no option to allow users who have perviously purchased the original app to receive a discount on the new version. So users are faced with having to pay full price for the upgrade, which in this case, is another $2.99.

In my opinion, this is not an unreasonable amount to pay for a major upgrade to an already great application, but there are users who feel they shouldn’t have to pay for the upgrade. My advice to them? If you can’t spare $3 for the amount of time and effort that was put into making a decent, feature-rich upgrade, don’t bother using it. Stick with the original Tweetie or find another app that you’re willing to pay for.

So, controversy aside, Tweetie 2 looks very promising. The latest beta build that was provided to developers is expected to be the final build, and if things go well, we should see it hit the App Store in the coming weeks. An update to the desktop version of Tweetie is also in the works, and will probably surface after the iPhone app is released.

What do you think of the new version? Will you be upgrading when it’s released? Let us know in the comments!

It’s a bird! No, it’s an app! No, it’s Tweetie 2 for iPhone! originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It’s a bird! No, it’s an app! No, it’s Tweetie 2 for iPhone! originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On Thursday, the 16GB PSP Go will finally launch at a price point of $250–just $50 less than its larger brother, the 120GB PlayStation 3 Trim. To help hype the digital-download-only handheld’s debut, Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced More

When I first saw and held the new handheld gaming console from Sony, I loved it. It was in L.A. in July at E3 , one of those times when any chance to shed some weight—off my kit, not my body—appeals to me. Dubbed the PSP Go, Sony’s latest More

Other new games debuting this past week on the all-platforms chart in the UK were Activision Blizzard’s Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 at number seven, and NCsoft’s latest MMO Aion at number 11. Activision Blizzard’s Guitar Hero 5 dropped from More

The official story: Obsidian reps routed inquiries to Alpha Protocol’s publisher, Sega, which hadn’t responded to requests for comment as of press time. Bogus or not bogus?: Likely not bogus. Two unconnected retailers wouldn’t shift the launch date More

Although Microsoft Corp. has demonstrated its motion-sensing code-named Natal controller using presently available Xbox 360 video games, the company is unlikely to update current titles to work with the forthcoming device. The bottom line: no Halo More

2K Sports announced today that Baseball Blast! ® , the only officially licensed Major League Baseball® mini-game experience, is now available exclusively for the Wii™ system from Nintendo. Baseball Blast! puts an exciting spin on massive league More

Panasonic’s unveiling of a 50-inch plasma TV that displays 3D images got me thinking: Is 3D the killer app that will make Blu-ray players popular in the home? Panasonic’s prototype HDTV, along with another 3D set from Sony , won’t be available until More

Whether or not video games are your thing, it’s still an industry with billions of dollars in play — one that has shown itself to be recession-proof, according to the ongoing consensus of upbeat analysts. In its On the internet Game Market Forecast, DFC More

Pure Digital: The PSPgo is smaller, sleeker, superior designed than its predecessors, but the thing that really separates it from all of the Playstation Portables that came before is its lack of a Universal Media Disc drive. Gamers will rely nearly More

More than 45 Kotaku readers have taken their orders from Hideo Kojima himself and are attempting to free the man from making Metal Gear games for the rest of his life. At the end of my interview with Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima last week , I More

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We’ve seen so many mods around here that sometimes it’s truly hard to get excited over the minor stuff. Well, this doesn’t fall into that category in any way. A computer scientist at the University in Warwick has developed a method to use Microsoft’s Xbox 360 to detect heart defects and help prevent heart attacks. Based on a demo created by Simon Scarle a few years back when he worked at Rare studio, it’s based on a modded chip that — instead of producing graphics for the game — now produces data tracking how the electrical signals in the heart moves about damaged cells, creating a model of it. The model can then be used to help physicians to identify defects and disturbances in the heart’s beating. This significantly decreases the costs and complications of creating a model of the heart, which is currently done by supercomputers and is very pricey. Scarle’s project and findings were just published in the August issue of the Journal of Computational Biology and Chemistry. Looks like we’ll all have a response the next time someone tells us that gaming is good for nothing, right?

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Gaming, Science

Computer scientist mods Xbox 360 to detect heart attacks, girls still mysteriously elusive originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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