RIM extending tools to other smartphone platforms, going cross-platform?

Over the past year or so it's become clear that there is a cure for the CrackBerry addict. For many it's called the iPhone, for others it's Android, while still others are getting their kicks from other platforms. IT departments worldwide are relaxing their rules and getting a little smartphone agnostic and now it sounds like RIM is thinking about finding a way to reel those newly straight-edged users back into their former habits. RIM Vice President Pete Devenyi had this to say on the subject:

BlackBerry is and will continue to be dominant in most corporations, [but] it's not going to be the only device given the fact that consumers have the choice to bring in their own devices and IT departments are often letting them in. So there's a question there. Do those corporations have to manage those devices differently or is there the possibility that RIM might extend capabilities to make it easier for those corporations to manage those devices as well? ... If the right thing to do is to extend a subset of those [BlackBerry] capabilities to be able to manage other devices, it's worthy of a conversation

Right now he's just talking about device management, but if this goes forward it could be a sign of a willingness for RIM to move some of its proprietary services to other devices. BBM on Android and iPhone? We know a few people getting positively giddy at that (highly speculative) prospect.

Road Blaster drives recklessly to iOS, available now for a buck

Revolutionary Concepts' cleaned-up iPhone/iPad port of the FMV car game Road Blaster may not have hit its original September 2010 release date, but that hardly matters now, because it's available now. Similar to Cobra Command, this is an updated version of a Data East arcade game, featuring vehicular mayhem rendered in traditional 2D animation.

If you'd like to take this insane, animated destructive driving adventure with you anywhere, you can do so right now for just 99 cents. After the "launch period," it's going back up to $2.99, so you should road blast over to the App Store if you're interested. Or drift past the break for some footage.

Source: Road Blaster (iTunes)
Via:Joystiq

Crytek: Crysis 2 needs 90+ score to make an impact

Crytek executive producer Nathan Camarillo has said he believes the studio’s latest game, Crysis 2, needs review scores to average over 90 percent if the game is to make an impact.

EA Partners boss David DeMartin’s recently commented that the game would easily average over 90 percent on Metacritic, and in response to this Camarillo told CVG:

“We’re going to put out the best game that we can make and that’s probably over a 90 rated, although it’s up to the reviewers obviously. I hope he didn’t jinx us.”

Camarillo went on to say that review scores are very important to any company, and those who don’t make the 90 mark are less likely to make an impact.

“I think you have to be 90 plus to make an impact in any genre now. The quality bar is so high and publishers and developers have put so much effort against high quality games.”

“If you want to be recognised at all, regardless of genre, like anything you need to create the highest quality product possible and anything else is not going to get noticed.”

Crysis 2 is due to release on March 25 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Pre-order the limited edition here for the standard price.

Via

Paper Gordon Freeman Can Save Humanity In Under Seven Minutes

The Half-Life series is a fan favourite for a ton of reasons, but the main one is that its universe and story are so strong. Strong enough, even, to be re-told in under seven minutes using...paper.

Below is the first Half-Life, re-enacted using little paper men, and told in 2:14. Below that is Half-Life 2, which thanks to its beefier plot runs to 3:57.

Both clips are the work of Stepan Yurov. He may tell a shorter story than Valve's epic shooter series (and include more Pac-Man cameos), but it's all the more charming because of it.

LG's Optimus 2X Caught Recording Video at 1080p [Video]

LG's Optimus 2X Caught Recording Video at 1080p [Video]: "

One of the many exciting bulletpoints surrounding LG's forthcoming Optimus 2X dual-core Android phone its its ability to record video at the full HD resolution of 1080p. But how does it look? Is the sensor man enough? Let's see... More »

CyanogenMod 7 Gingerbread nightlies pushing now!

For those of you waiting to get your hands on CyanogenMod 7 (aka Gingerbread), nightly builds have finally (we say that with a smile) started up for the phones supported by the community project. Builds are ... erm ... building as we speak, and we've already got it up and running on our Nexus One.
As is case with these nightly builds, bugs are inevitable. So no complaining about that to the folks in charge, eh? Get your download on in Rom Manager or at the Cyanogen forums, and you'll need to flash new gapps (99 percent of us will want the Universal DPI: Tiny version) with this nightly. Enjoy! [Cyanogen, gapps]
CyanogenMod 7 Gingerbread nightlies pushing now! posted originally by Android Central
Sponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded

Although the Keyblade-swinging action is easily on par with 358/2 Days, the awkward plot, increasingly stale locations, and recycled game scenarios make Re:coded the weakest Kingdom Hearts title yet.

In a nutshell, Kingdom Hearts Re:coded is a remake of the 2008 Japan-exclusive episodic mobile title "Kingdom Hearts coded," albeit rebuilt from the ground up for the Nintendo DS. While both games cover the same narrative threads, Re:coded benefits from a lot of new additions indicative to the DS hardware: better graphics, dual-screen content, and a significantly retouched combat system.

If you haven't been following the Kingdom Hearts saga throughout the five games that have been released so far, Re:coded isn't where you should introduce yourself to the series. Don't get me wrong -- it's a solid entry in a great franchise that successfully mixes the talents of Square Enix with the star power of several iconic Disney characters, but I'm not going to pretend the story makes any sense. It just doesn't. Heck -- to be fair, the entire Kingdom Hearts plot train fell off the rails and over a bridge about halfway through Kingdom Hearts II.

Taking place shortly after Kingdom Hearts II, Re:coded's story begins when mysterious messages and pleas for help start appearing in Jiminy Cricket's journal. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy digitize the journal to analyze the corrupted pages, creating a "Data Sora" to debug the entries within the book's contents. What follows is a strange and baffling adventure that involves the Darkness in the "Data World" interfering with the real world, with the final events having no clear influence on anything occurring in the series' arc. Of course, this is a side-game, so it's not supposed to have much sway on the events in the "core" Kingdom Hearts titles, but at this point it feels like series creator Tetsuya Nomura is making this stuff up as he goes along.

From beginning to end, every sequence of events in Re:coded is one poorly explained plot twist after another. At the very least, previous series spin-off 358/2 Days tied up some dangling threads and character origins that fleshed out things in the time-skip between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. No such thing is done in Re:coded, due in large part to storytelling that somehow feels both rushed and strangely light on details.

While the convoluted narrative leaves much to be desired, the action is nonetheless at its best in Re:coded. Some of the combat mechanics feature elements borrowed from the far superior Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, and advanced players can make things legitimately challenging thanks to the various tweaks the game allows you to make. Data Sora's stats, items, and abilities are all managed via the "Matrix System," which also allows players to tweak in-game factors like enemy strength, drop rates of loot, experience rates, and so on. In addition to that, skills can be collected, leveled up, and merged to create all-new abilities, which helps stave off boredom after mowing down hundreds of old Heartless enemies.

It's almost diabolical how addictive the "Stat Matrix" and "Command Matrix" can become later in the game. Of the two, the former is represented as a large circuit board (keeping with the digital theme of the game), where installing certain chips yields a calculated boost in Data Sora's abilities. For example, you can install "Level Up" chips anywhere in the Stat Matrix, but if you can line them up between two adjacent "CPU" chips, the computing power will double your level gain. Careful character management like this makes a huge difference in the long run -- I spent more than half of the game 10 levels lower than I should've been, all because I wasn't paying attention to the arrangement of my Stat Matrix. Once I knew what I was doing, the game opened up dramatically.

Although Re:coded is essentially a retread of various Kingdom Hearts worlds you've seen multiple times already (Wonderland, Agrabah, Hollow Bastion), the game at least tries new gameplay styles in a few boss battles and missions. One of these levels even includes turn-based combat, while another tries its best to mimic Space Harrier. However, most worlds are focused around the same third-person perspective from the original Kingdom Hearts, complete with the usual drunken camera angles and stiff, imprecise platforming. For the most part, it's nothing that we haven't seen before, and for anyone who's faithfully played all the other games in the series, this will seem like tired shtick.

Overall, Kingdom Hearts Re:coded has a decent amount of polish, and should be interesting for series fans who have managed to keep the story straight so far. If you tackle the handful of side-quests and extra missions, you'll even net a good 15 to 30 hours out of the game -- just don't expect much clarity out of the narrative.

PROS: Decent graphics, interesting leveling system, plenty of extra challenges and quests; the unique "Matrix System" can actually make several missions legitimately difficult.
CONS: Terrible camera, irritating platforming sections, awkward learning curve; too much content recycled from previous titles; don't bother trying to make any sense of the unnecessarily convoluted story.

Via:GamePro

Source:GamePro

Italy's Mediaset sends 3D content over terrestrial connection, isn't actually broadcasting 3D TV

While Mediaset appears to be (one of) the first to convey 3D content over a terrestrial connection, it isn't actually serving up any 3D television -- it is 'datacasting' or ever-so-slowly downloading 3D movies to a set-top box, which you may later consume directly from the hard disk that received them. The innovation here is in the utilization of spare airwaves to basically trickle a movie into your Motive Bestv STB -- we know, it's an irrelevancy to most of you cable- and internet-connected media mavens, but it's one way to deliver 3D content to less technologically developed nations. Motive is already in talks with companies in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Turkey about doing the same, but Italy gets the honor of being first with a choice of 50 3D titles on Mediaset's 3VOD service. Let's see what the Azzurri think of it, eh?

Evolve III Maestro slate triple-boots Android, MeeGo and Windows 7 (video)

We inevitably miss things at tradeshows, and here's one we regret -- we didn't catch this obscure Australian tablet in the flesh at CES 2011. Apparently, this Evolve III Maestro was casually chilling at Intel's booth with Android, Windows 7 and a 1.83GHz Atom N475 CPU inside, but representatives were willing to reveal grander plans if you spent a little time with the device. You see, come Q2 2011, the slate will graduate to a dual-core Oak Trail CPU, and add MeeGo to the stack for a grand total of three operating systems. TabletPCBuzz says Windows 7 and Android are getting eight and sixteen hours of battery life on the Oak Trail chip respectively, and the tablet weighs less than two pounds.

It's hard to say what other features the Oak Trail version will have, but even the existing tablet isn't a pushover, with a 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600 capacitive touchscreen, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, up to 32GB of solid state storage, 3G and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and a pair of full-size USB ports on one edge. Sources suggest the original will find a $500 price point, with the Oak Trail commanding an additional $100. After the break, you'll find a disappointingly static video, but follow the links below for a walkthrough of the MeeGo UI and all the specs you could want.

[Thanks, Garf]

Continue reading Evolve III Maestro slate triple-boots Android, MeeGo and Windows 7 (video)

Why Google's Chrome notebook will succeed

In the past two weeks, Google has started sending out its pilot notebook for testing. It is little more than a Web browser tucked inside a netbook. Yes, all it does is surf the Web. And it's going to be huge.

Evolve III Maestro slate triple-boots Android, MeeGo and Windows 7 (video)

We inevitably miss things at tradeshows, and here's one we regret -- we didn't catch this obscure Australian tablet in the flesh at CES 2011. Apparently, this Evolve III Maestro was casually chilling at Intel's booth with Android, Windows 7 and a 1.83GHz Atom N475 CPU inside, but representatives were willing to reveal grander plans if you spent a little time with the device. You see, come Q2 2011, the slate will graduate to a dual-core Oak Trail CPU, and add MeeGo to the stack for a grand total of three operating systems. TabletPCBuzz says Windows 7 and Android are getting eight and sixteen hours of battery life on the Oak Trail chip respectively, and the tablet weighs less than two pounds.

It's hard to say what other features the Oak Trail version will have, but even the existing tablet isn't a pushover, with a 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600 capacitive touchscreen, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, up to 32GB of solid state storage, 3G and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and a pair of full-size USB ports on one edge. Sources suggest the original will find a $500 price point, with the Oak Trail commanding an additional $100. After the break, you'll find a disappointingly static video, but follow the links below for a walkthrough of the MeeGo UI and all the specs you could want.

Via: Geek.com, Liliputing
Engadget
Source:Evolve Three, pcchan54 (YouTube)

iPhone headset socket hijacked to power DIY peripherals (video)

Hijacking Power and Bandwidth from the Mobile Phone's Audio Interface - Integrated Prototype from Thomas Schmid on Vimeo.

Apple's proprietary dock connector may keep would-be peripheral manufacturers at bay, but if you want to build your own iOS companion devices, there's another way. You might have noticed that the Square credit card reader uses Apple's 3.5mm headset jack to transmit power and data at once, and gadgeteers at the University of Michigan are busy open-sourcing the same technique for all the DIY contraptions you can dream of. Project HiJack has already figured out how to pull 7.4 milliwatts out of a 22kHz audio tone, and built a series of prototype boards (including working EKG, temperature, humidity and motion sensors) that transmit data to and from an iOS app at up to 8.82 kbaud -- using just $2.34 worth of electronic components. See the basic principles at work in the video above, and -- as soon as the team updates Google Code -- find out how to build your own at the links below.

Ars Technica

Project HiJack

Angry Birds (for PlayStation 3, PSP)

Controls: Jerky

Angry Birds has become a casual gaming sensation, and one of the premiere smartphone games. It's the new Bejeweled, the new Tetris, the new Solitaire. There's something inexplicably addictive and entertaining about using a giant slingshot to send birds crashing through pigs' fortifications. Now it's come to Sony's gaming systems as a PlayStation mini, a $3.99 downloadable game you can play on both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. But before PS fans get too excited, be aware that Angry Birds for Sony's gaming platforms isn't as smart as the smartphone versions.

On one hand, this port of Angry Birds is faithful to the original game. On the other hand, too little was changed for the game to be very fun on the PS3, and performance issues hinder its playability on the PSP. The game comes with just 63 levels (though there is the potential for more in the future). Considering that smartphone versions cost less and include more than three times as many levels (not even including the Angry Birds Seasons games), it's not nearly as tempting as it could be.

For both PlayStation versions of the game, the controls are very simple, but they're not nearly as satisfying as the touch-screen controls found on smartphone versions. The left analog stick (on the PS3) or analog disc (on the PSP) aims the slingshot, X fires, and the shoulder buttons pan the map back and forth so you can look over the level. You can fire the slingshot by flicking the analog stick/disc for a more tactile sensation, but it's an unreliable way to play the game, and you'll find yourself nudging the controller in just the wrong way at a crucial time, sending your bird hopping uselessly just a few feet instead of flying across the level.

Specifications

Platform

Sony PSP, PlayStation 3

Genre

Board/Puzzle

ESRB Rating

E for Everybody

More

Graphics: It's No Super Meat Boy
Visually, Angry Birds has not changed one whit from its smartphone versions. On both the PS3 and PSP, the game features the same cartoony, simple graphics used before, and the menu layout is identical. Regardless of the platform, the game is standard definition. While it looks fine on the PSP (despite some slight pixilation around straight lines placed on angles, on the PS3 it looks blocky and unpleasant, like a smartphone screen blown up to HDTV size. The menus, the sprites, the animations, they're all jarringly full of pixels. While pixilated sprites might be acceptable in retro-themed games, in these days of high-res, hand-drawn sprites in games like Castle Crashers and Super Meat Boy, Angry Birds just looks dated.

On the smaller screen of the PSP, Angry Birds looks much nicer. Unfortunately, the lower processing power leads to some other flaws in the game. You can expect to see significant choppiness and stuttering of the picture during particularly spectacular launches as the handheld's CPU works to keep up. A perfect, pig-crushing throw feels much less satisfying when you watch it jerk along at a few frames per second, hiccupping as the wood, stone, and glass walls shatter and fall.

At Least it's Ch eap
Between its lackluster presentation on the PS3 and jerky game play on the PSP, the PlayStation Mini version of Angry Birds isn't the best version of the game for either platform. However, at $3.99 and packed with dozens of levels, it's a cheap way to sate your bird-flinging thirst if you don't have an Android, iPhone, or iPad. If you have any of the aforementioned mobile devices, use them. Lower prices, more levels, and a much more satisfying touch-screen control system make this one of the few cases where iPhones and Android phones can handle a game far better than either of Sony's systems.

Source:PcMag

Via:PcMag