Crave

(Credit: EA Sports)

EA Sports is one of the few game companies that's managed to successfully charge $9.99 for a game in Apple's App Store. Madden NFL 10, priced at 10 bucks, remains a top seller, and now FIFA Soccer 10 has hit the App Store for $9.99 and seems destined to make a run for the top spot in the games category.

While we thought Madden didn't play quite as well we'd hoped it would on the iPhone (and iPod Touch), we think soccer, with its top-down view and simple control scheme, should make a better transition to the iPhone.

FIFA Soccer 10 does face some stiff competition from Gameloft's Real Soccer 10, which we have to say plays very well--and Real Soccer 10 sells for less ($6.99) and has a loyal following (while this is EA's first soccer game for the iPhone, Gameloft's Real Soccer 10 is in its second season). That said, on the surface at least, FIFA Soccer 10 appears to be the more robust of the two games, offering more licensed teams and players as well as a "Be a Pro" mode that allows you to create a player and track his play over multiple seasons.

If you don't have an iPhone or iPod Touch, EA Sports is also releasing FIFA Soccer 10 on all dedicated game consoles (PS3, PSP, PS2, XBox 360, Wii, and DS) and the PC on October 20. However, those versions cost significantly more than $10.

We'll let you know our impressions of FIFA Soccer 10 for iPhone and iPod Touch after we've played the game. But in the meantime, feel free to make your own comments.

Gameloft's Real Soccer 10 is impressive and costs 3 dollars less ($6.99).

(Credit: Gameloft)

(Credit: Pack-IT)

U.S. Soccer Federation, take note: If you want the sport to be as popular here as it is in the rest of the world, start marketing more products like this.

We know as much about futbol as we do about figure skating, but we'd be the first in line to get one of these soccer ball remotes that are sold in the U.K. And it can actually be used as a ball to play with, according to Gizmodo, though we wouldn't recommend that if it was the only remote in the house.

It supposedly can be used for all brands of various devices, including TVs, DVD players, and satellite boxes. The ball has a range of 7.6 meters, or about 25 feet to us Yanks--but, as the product listing says, "you can kick it much farther."

(Credit: Sony)

We've good and bad news for you soccer fanatics awaiting the upcoming PlayStation 3 installation of Konami's World Soccer Winning Eleven 2008. The highly anticipated game will finally be launched on Nov. 22 in Singapore--but the only way tp take one home is to purchase a $430 40GB PS3 bundle.

While our Sony contact was unable to comment on the actual savings, we were reassured that there is in fact some discount thrown in for the package. A goodie bag including Winning Eleven 2008 collectibles such as a towel, whistle phone strap, and calendars will be included as part of the deal too.

(Source: Crave Asia)

(Credit: Wikimedia)

After attempts to "crowdsource" the purchase of a soccer club, it was obviously just a matter of time until the concept of crowdsourcing--the act of outsourcing a job or task to a group of people--would be applied to the actual game.

The Israeli team Hapoel Play65 Kiryat Shalom, a shared project of the online backgammon room Play65 and the Israeli social network for sports fans Web2sport, prides itself on being the first Web 2.0 soccer club in the world.

The club has begun experimenting with a wisdom-of-the-fans approach that allows the team's supporters to monitor the game online and suggest starting lineup, tactics, and substitutions--in other words be the manager and coach. On the club's Web site, fans can drag virtual players into their preferred positions on a pitch diagram. The information is then collated and the players who get the most votes line up for the next match.

Ahead of the season's opening match, some 6,000 people took advantage of this opportunity. However, it remains disputable whether the wisdom of the crowd can match the solitary genius of star coaches like Arsene Wenger (Arsenal London) or Frank Rijkaard (FC Barcelona): in its first crowdsourced game, Hapoel Play65 Kiryat Shalom lost 3-2 to Maccabi Ironi Or Yehuda in injury time.

We run till the sun implodes

(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET Networks)

CHIBA, Japan--Citizen's micro robots come in peace.

The watch company, which also makes a wide variety of industrial-grade precision components, has come up with a couple of robot kits designed to get kids interested in the field.

The Eco-drive robots--the three robots with faces and watches on top in that first picture--are powered by gears and mechanisms in the watch. Although the watch is turning the gears of the robot, it continues to function normally. The whole thing is powered by a solar panel.

The system will work "as long as there is light or until breaking," Citizen said in the poster accompanying the robots. Citizen showed them off last week at Ceatec, the large trade show here.

robot, robot oi, oi, oi

(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET Networks)

The other robots, meanwhile, are guided by an infrared beam coming from above. (The infrared beam, in turn, is controlled by someone sitting at a computer or by a preprogrammed application. Take your pick.)

As depicted here, the infrared beam can have the robots chasing a beam of regular light--in effect, playing soccer. Right now, these two guys in the second picture--about an inch and a half tall--are getting in each other's way, but they move fairly fast. There were five in all scurrying about.

You just can't get enough of robots at this show, or in Japan for that matter. Very few companies actually have enjoyed success with their anthropomorphic robots, but they continue to crank them out, hoping that some day a hit will emerge. NEC showed off its PaPeRo robot again, a cute little number that talks to you, delivers weather reports and warns you when burglars enter the house. (Security systems are huge sellers in Japan, although it has one of the lowest crime rates in the world.). Vstone also showed off the Robovie-R, which is similar to PaPeRo but taller.

One thing sports like football, soccer, baseball, and golf have in common is that in order to play them you use shoes that have cleats in them.

When you run, hit, catch or throw, those cleats can tear up the turf and make holes in the ground. Well, a German designer named Daniel Wilhelms has developed a soccer cleat that is filled with fertilizer. Called the Naturistick, the cleat releases a dose of fertilizer with every step you take. This is an interesting concept that we may see evolve into other sports as a way to insure that our playing surfaces stay green and lush.

I don't know too much about them yet as the website is in German, but if you can read German then check out Daniel Wilhelms Naturistick.

This coming Saturday marks the start of the new Barclays Premier League season--and the weekly heartache of trying to keep up to date with the footie while attending weddings and going to visit the in-laws high up in the Pennines. But don't fear, just because you're not sat in a pub or in front of your brand-new HDTV doesn't mean you can't follow the football--all you need is your trusty mobile phone and a little know-how.

(Credit: Crave UK)

There are five main ways of receiving updates using your phone: text alerts, mobile football sites, video clips, using a Slingbox, or buying two mobile phones, calling yourself and then sticking one of them next to your telly when Jeff Stelling's Soccer Saturday is on. Much as we love Jeff, we don't recommend the latter unless you like really expensive phone bills.

The first option is pretty straightforward--most network operators offer a football text-alert service for a monthly charge. All you have to do is contact your provider and get them to set you up, or check its Web site and look for the setup details, which usually involves texting the name of your team to a special number. The charge for using this service varies depending on the network and you'll usually be charged per message, so if you're on a budget you should ask how much it will cost before you sign up.

If you have Internet access on your phone, most networks also provide a mobile football site that gives you a range of information, including pictures and interviews. Or you can access the BBC's mobile sport site by texting "sport" to 81010. Accessing Web sites on your phone is usually charged according to how much data you download, so it's wise to find out how much Web allowance you have on your contract, or how much it's going to cost you on pay as you go. If you're going on holiday during the season, it's even more important to find out how much it will cost to use abroad, as prices rocket when you're not in the UK.

Reading about a match is hardly the same as watching it, but if you've got a 3G handset you can watch highlights wherever you are in the UK. Sky has teamed up with all the major UK networks to bring clips of all the action from the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League to your mobile. For 5 pounds per month or on a pay-per-view tariff you can access clips of goals just after they've happened and highlights of a match when it's over. Visit 24-7football.co.uk for more information. Again, it's important to point out that you might be charged for the data, so we recommend using this service on a flat-rate data tariff.

Watching clips might be fun, but the mobile footie completist will need a Slingbox. The Slingbox is a quirky-looking device that attaches to your set-top box and lets you access whatever is showing on your TV at home, on a Windows Mobile phone or one of 3's X-Series handsets. The beauty of this system is that it lets you watch matches from your Freeview or Sky box in their entirety, unlike any clip or highlight services.

We think the Slingbox is one of the best solutions, but it does come at a higher price than the other options. You have to pay for a Slingbox, a monthly tariff such as 3's X-Series, which comes in at 20 to 40 pounds, and if you want all the matches then you'll need to get Sky and Setanta set up at your home too.

(Source: Crave UK)

Musician and inventor Aleksei R. Stevens has created a concept product called the SoundBall. The SoundBall is a soccer ball that is filled with motion sensors that detect when the ball is being rolled, dropped, kicked, or spun. The motion data is then transmitted over Bluetooth to a local computer that bleeps out corresponding electronic noises.

My guess is that he's got some kind of Arduino or Parallax board inside the ball and Cycling '74 Max/MSP music software running on his computer. Whatever he's using, it looks like a fun way to kill some time and annoy the neighbors. I can't wait until someone comes up with a cat toy version!

(Source: Core77)

RoboCup 2007, the international robot soccer, rescue and home chore competition, concluded Sunday night with an awards ceremony, but some are still wondering who won.

The organization used Wikipedia as a central location from which to post results for its different events, but the information from many links remained incomplete as of Monday afternoon. It's left some followers of the event flummoxed.

About 300 teams, comprising 1,700 people from 37 countries, participated in RoboCup 2007, which was held this year at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

The event to promote artificial intelligence and robotics included soccer games, search-and-rescue missions and home assistance tasks performed by humanoid and legged robots of various sizes, as well as soccer drills with microscopic robots. This year an aerial robotics competition was also added to the list of events.

"The ultimate goal of the RoboCup project is to, by 2050, develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world champion team in soccer," according to the organization's mission statement.

Award for the Best Humanoid Robot seems to have gone to Team Osaka from Japan for their kid-size humanoid soccer robots, while the award for soccer with medium-size robots went to the Tribots from the University of Osnabruck in Germany. (That's based on wading through schedule charts posted on the RoboCup 2007 Wikipedia site.)

Results for the RoboCup 2007 legged league, those programming legged robots such as the Sony Aibo to play soccer, were clear. The Northern Bites, a team from Bowdoin College in Maine, are the RoboCup 2007 soccer champs, according to the college's press office, as well as the Northern Bites' team blog. The team plans to go see the new Transformers movie as part of their celebratory activities. A German team comprising students from Humboldt Universitat Berlin, Universitat Bremen and Technische Universitat Darmstadt took first place for the technical challenge.

RoboCup 2007 Junior, the competition for elementary through high school students, included three categories: soccer, dance and rescue. Those winners have not yet been posted.