Later this summer, owners of EA Sports' highly rated and enjoyable boxing game, Fight Night Round 4, will get a shot at some free downloadable content.
EA says the first "DLC" pack will be available for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 users by early August, and will include a new training gym, new gameplay sliders, and "a host of new equipment that can be used for outfitting boxers." Xbox 360 users get a bonus: an alternate version of Sugar Ray Leonard courtesy of Pizza Hut (we're not sure what "alternate" means, but hey, two of Sugar Ray has got to be a good thing).
The company also plans to release a free downloadable game update by early September that lets gamers use face buttons on the Xbox 360 and PS3 game controllers to throw punches, hooks, uppercuts, and haymakers. EA maintains that the Total Punch Control system, which relies on the right thumbstick for throwing punches, is "the most intuitive way to throw punches."
However, having played the game (yes, I'm a fan), there are times when the punch you want to throw ends up being different from the one you intended to throw. In other words, I can see how some people want very straightforward controls rather than ones that require sliding the stick in a certain motion to throw a punch.
Read the full review of Fight Night Round 4 here.
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(Credit:
Apple)
Update (June 26, 2009): Now that the dust has settled, Jim Dalrymple has a more complete picture of how and why this app was removed.
Update: We initially reported that Apple had blocked the app, but it now appears that the developer's servers were simply overwhelmed (Apple's servers distribute the app, but the images themselves are pulled from the developer's server). We'll have further updates as the story continues to evolve.
Back when Apple first launched its App Store, Steve Jobs showed a slide with six categories of apps that would be verboten: "Porn, privacy, bandwidth hog, illegal, malicious," and "unforeseen." Well, on Wednesday Apple allowed a developer to add nude models to the 17+ rated app "Hottest Girls," ushering in what may--or may not be--a new era for iPhone apps.
When news of the nude images first leaked out, the Mac enthusiast site Macenstein proclaimed, "And then there was porn." The headline was followed by the rather titillating lede: "Today the iTunes app store became a man, having finally seen its first adult app. Meaning nudity. Meaning boobies."
As noted, "Hottest Girls" ($1.99), carries Apple's 17+ rating (for "Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity.") and until recently only featured women in lingerie and bathing suits. But Hottest Girls' developer Allen Leung told bloggers Wednesday that, "We uploaded nude topless pics today. This is the first app to have nudity."
Macenstein noted that the announcement rivaled "the first transmissions from the moon landing in importance."
That was Wednesday. On Thursday, TechCrunch discovered that it couldn't download the application and immediately assumed Apple had blocked it. But it now appears there were just too many people trying to download the application at once.
A note on the developer's Web site reads:
Of course, this brings into question the whole notion of just what "porn" is--and isn't. In some parts of America, an app that boasts "completely naked pics" would be considered indecent, plain and simple. But in parts of Europe, well, Hottest Girls is just a day at the beach.
What do you think? Is this good news? And how relaxed do you think Apple will be? Or is it just a matter of time before the company shuts down tawdry apps like this because it potentially damages its reputation?
(Source: Macenstein via Gizmodo)
Until recently, the Hottest Girls app just featured scantily clad models.
The LaCinema Classic Bridge.
(Credit: Lacie)Following the success of the Western Digital WD TV, an accessory for USB external hard drives that plays multimedia content stored on the hard drive, LaCie announced on Monday its LaCinema Classic Bridge.
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(Credit:
Guerilla Games)
Sony has been continually criticized for not having enough exclusive titles--and exclusive hits--for the PS3 to help drives sales of the console. That's not entirely true; the company has had some attractive exclusives, such as LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and MotorStorm, but it's still paying the price for not hanging onto the Grand Theft Auto franchise--and failing to match Xbox 360's mega hits, Halo 3 and Gears of War 2 with anything as enticing (Resistance 2 was good, but it probably didn't move boxes).
Well, with Killzone 2, it now has a terrific first-person shooter that's getting rave reviews across the board--and you can't get it on the Xbox 360. Several gaming pubs have given it a perfect score (see Metacritic's roundup here) and our own review (via GameSpot) came in at 9.0. Just as importantly, mainstream newspapers like The New York Times have also given it the thumbs-up.
In Tuesday's Times, Seth Schiesel delivers a virtual love letter. "Perhaps the highest praise I can offer is that Killzone 2 is the first console shooter to make an old-school PC gamer like me wish it was available for 'my' system."
He also calls it the finest-looking shooter he's seen on a console. And more controversially, he adds, "Gears of War 2, the top shooter for Microsoft's competing Xbox 360, still looks good, but with Killzone 2, Sony is demonstrating that the superior silicon horsepower in the PlayStation 3 is opening a widening gap over the 360 when it comes to pure eye candy."
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Our friend at Cox is about to get selectively friendly toward Internet content.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CBS Interactive)Net neutrality fans, grab your chairs; I have some rocking news.
Cox Communications, the third-largest cable Internet provider in the U.S., announced Tuesday that starting February, it will begin testing a new method of managing traffic on its high-speed Internet network in Kansas and Arkansas.
This means during the times the network is congested the company will--to put it bluntly--discriminate between Internet content and regulate the bandwidth accordingly.
The company divides Internet traffic into two categories: time-sensitive and nontime-sensitive, with the former taking the priority during the congested hours.
Here's the company's break-down of these two categories:
The time sensitive category includes:
- Web (Web surfing, including web-based e-mail and chat embedded in Web pages)
- VoIP (Voice over IP, telephone calls made over the Internet)
- IM (Instant messages, including related voice and Webcam traffic)
- Streaming (Web-based audio and video programs)
- Games (Online interactive games)
- Tunneling & Remote Connectivity (VPN-type services for telecommuting)
- Other (Any service not categorized into another area)
The nontime-sensitive category includes:
- File Access (Bulk transfers of data such as FTP)
- Network Storage (Bulk transfers of data for storage)
- P2P (Peer to peer protocols)
- Software Updates (Managed updates, such as operating system updates)
- Usenet (Newsgroup related)
Cox says the new congestion management plan only kicks in when congestion levels reach a certain high. It also insists the company will ensure that its customers continue to have a good online experience.
Personally, I don't really mind this, because I live in California and games are categorized as time-sensitive. For those who are more concerned, you can learn more about Cox's congestion management plan here.
(Credit:
Pinnacle Systems)
It's not exactly winter yet, though it feel fairly cold. However, folks at Pinnacle Systems think differently and on Thursday announced a new Pinnacle Theme Winter Pack for the Pinnacle Studio consumer video-editing application.
The Winter Pack is released together with the 12.1 update of the Pinnacle Studio software. The pack offers more than 80 additional winter-themed titles, DVD menus, and Pinnacle Montage templates. It will be included in special Pinnacle Studio Plus and Ultimate Winter Pack Editions at selected retailers until December 31.
The Winter Pack enables people to quickly create movies with themes relating to the holidays. If you already have the Pinnacle Studio 12 software, you can purchase the pack separately for $39.99 from October 30, 2008 to November 6, 2008, directly from Pinnacle Systems.
On the other hand, the 12.1 update is available as a free download for all Pinnacle Studio version 12 users. The update offers support for importing and exporting of the QuickTime file format, expanded support for the latest H.264-based camcorders such as Aiptek H.264 and Sanyo Xacti, and performance improvements.
Build apps for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.
(Credit: Sony Ericsson)Sony Ericsson announced its third annual Content Awards on Thursday. Developers are invited to submit content and applications for use on Sony Ericsson devices. The company released a free SDK two weeks ago.
Sony Ericsson is asking developers to create content and applications that address three questions: How can mobile phones help us monitor our carbon footprint? How can the next generation of mobile phones make our lives less frantic? In what ways can we make our phones personal?
Entries will be judged on ease of use, entertainment factor, innovation, look and feel, and audio performance. The seven categories include Being Productive, Going Green, In-Car applications, Mobile Entertainment, Lifestyle Experiences, Themes & Graphics, and Xperia X1 Panels. Hint, hint on that last one, by the way. The Xperia X1 is set for release outside North America before the end of the month.
The winners in each category will get a trip to Sweden to share their content with developers and company execs, attend workshops, and indulge in a tasty smorgasbord lunch. All right, we made the last one up, but what would a trip to Sweden be without it?
For details, check out Sony Ericsson's Web site. The deadline for entries is November 30.
Last year, Playboy made the original iPhone sexier with iPlayboy, a package of Playmate-featuring wallpapers and photos for the Apple handset. But what if sexier is still not sexy enough?
It's self-explanatory, really.
(Credit: iRoticNet)Taking advantage of the new iPhone 3G's fast mobile-data connection, iRoticNet today announced plans to premiere an adult video destination designed specifically for the iPhone 3G.
The company said it would offer a huge amount of content from dozens of studios at a much lower cost than other services. For about $10 per month, subscribers will get unlimited access to hundreds of full-length movies and more than 1,000 clips. Now that's a lot of pornography.
The service is available worldwide to anyone who can legally view adult material. It's also compatible with the original iPhone. However, iRoticNet recommends that due to the lack of 3G speed, users of the original iPhone would probably want a Wi-Fi connection.
Personally I am not surprised by this new offering. Currently, mobile adult content is a $1.7 billion business, and considering the ubiquity of the phone, this is just inevitable. By the way, when I volunteered to write about this, my co-worker Joseph Kaminski--a longtime iPhone owner--immediately asked, "Are you trying to get a free subscription from this blog?" Well, that sounds like a good deal, but I really need to be able to get an iPhone 3G first.
The widgets story has always locked icons and links in a race to recover your most-wanted data quickly and accurately. When it comes to cell phones, there's been no clear winner, only trade-offs. Mobile browsers such as Opera Mini and Skyfire promise rich desktop search augmented by straightforward links to favored sites, while well-designed widgets applications such as Yahoo Go supply clear paths to tightly-focused content, some of it user-customized.
The most recent update improves Zumobi's speed and accepts personalized tiles of RSS feeds.
(Credit: Zumobi)Seattle-based Zumobi and Swedish newcomer Squace are two companies I spoke to this week that are pitching icons over links. On Wednesday, Zumobi announced a version update that gives the graphics-rich widget application a performance-based tummy tuck--technically, a rewritten threading architecture.
The efforts have paid off. Now, zooming into a widget "tile" from the 16 square interface produces a much smoother, faster rendering than earlier versions, a strong complaint of mine.
Zumobi has also continued to tighten its offering with a functional Zero Menu, which serves as Zumobi's tile manager and gallery. Smarter work flow patterns list available gallery tiles by category type, like humor, news, and finance, and a new installation methodology drops Zumobi onto Windows Mobile phones about 30 percent faster than before. The most exciting addition is a Web tool to create and port user-generated tiles of RSS feeds.
I'm pleased to see that Zumobi, which has always been a juicy piece of eye candy, is beginning to purse its brain, too.
In Squace, each cell represents an RSS feed or personal Squace site.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Squace
Operating in roughly the same quadrant, Squace beta takes a more micro view of getting to online content. The application interface is a simple grid of 45 cells to 150 cells, depending on the phone's screen size. The personal or preset content you add from your online Squace account fills in each tiny square in alphabetical order and lightly etches on the letter to help you keep track (see image).
Hovering over a cell pops up the content name. If it's a blog, you'll be directed to a second screen where scrolling over a cell pulls up the titles to individual posts. This, too, is currently alphabetized, making the chronology of news items unclear.
Unlike Zumobi, you may add as many links as you want to Squace; the extras spill onto following pages. There are tabs for tags, messages, and reaching out to contacts in the budding social network. There's also a search icon, a called-out ribbon for storing favorites in teeny squares, and a very easy online interface for creating personalized content like the private site Squace CEO Aage Reerslev demoed of his daughter's day care.
Squace looks promising, though time-stamp filtering and the capability to add content from the phone interface are notably absent. As for the geometry, Squace's tiny squares may give way to a squint, but it's an intriguing form factor that's despite the uniform sameness is designed very well.
U.K. residents with iPhones can do a little rejoicing after yesterday. Amid the wave of announcements surrounding the release of the SDK, the BBC quietly launched iPhone and iPod Touch support for its iPlayer TV service. We've blogged about this being a feature after footage of the iPlayer working on the iPhone was shown off in a promotional video made more than 10 months ago, but the videos on the streaming service use Adobe's Flash, which is not a part of the iPhone's built-in software.
Unlike the software iteration of the iPlayer, shows can't be downloaded, but users have access to a limited selection of streaming content that's been formatted to work on the handset. Instead of featuring the beautiful Coverflow-approach seen in the video, the service uses a system similar to what's been seen on Apple.com and Break.com, with little blue play buttons to indicate the videos that can be played on the portable device when connected to a Wi-Fi connection.
The BBC has been a little late to the game with putting television content online for its viewers; however, in comparison to content providers in the U.S., it's the first to make its content readily viewable on the mobile device without any special subscriptions through the carriers. In the U.S., Verizon is currently one of the only major players in providing recently released television shows (in their entirety) over the air to its subscribers through its VCast Mobile TV service. Sprint and AT&T will also have initiatives to bring TV and movie content to phones over the air.
It's worth noting the service only works to residents of the U.K., who pay for the programming with their tax dollars. No mention of whether a paid version of the service for residents outside of the region is on the way. See more on the BBC's iPlayer blog.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
