Gaming and Culture

(Credit: Gizmodo)

Wow, as if we needed more incentive to not invest in the PSP Go, a new trend has arisen during the first day of Mini availability. The same games cost more on the PSP/PSP Go than they do on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Examples:

(Credit: Gizmodo)

Unfortunately, the system is set up to charge the consumer at maximum from the get-go. Games from the App Store start at free. PSP Minis--a new series of bite-size games--start at $5.

The fact of the matter is the iPhone gaming experience isn't all that great. Full-fledged PSP titles should cost more than tiny downloadable apps any day. But there's no good reason for gamers to pay a premium on PSP titles that are available for less on other platforms, just because they generally pay more for games.

There are multiple fingers to be pointed here. Sony, for not allowing free games, which would inspire some price competition. Sony again, for skimming who knows how much off the top of the price point. (In comparison, it's known that Apple takes 30 percent off of the iPhone App Store sales.) And the publishers, who decide to set their games at prices up to two or three times the cost of the iPhone version.

But the worst part? Not only is the content of overlapping titles generally no better than the iPhone; sometimes it's worse.

T3's rendering of a Zune-Xbox portable gaming console.

(Credit: T3.com)

The Zune rumor mill has been churning for a while, with leaks of an alleged ZuneHD and maybe even a Zune smartphone. The latest rumor gathering steam is sort a riff on previous rumors: Microsoft is developing a portable digital entertainment device that bridges the gap between the Zune and the Xbox 360.

Team Xbox, which ran a story back in January with a similar theme, is the site behind the gaming Zune rumor. Team Xbox's anonymous source had some juicy tidbits to throw out, saying the Microsoft handheld, which has been dubbed the xYz, will be "unlike anything on the market today" and that we should think in terms of a mashup between the Sony Mylo, the PSP, and the iPod Touch. The source, Team Xbox says, wanted to make clear that device "lacks access to a phone network."

The article goes on to note that the graphical interface found in the New Xbox Experience will make its way onto the handheld. "Buy a song, a movie, or a TV show on your Xbox, play the content later on the handheld or the other way around," the source said. "Play an Xbox Live Arcade game either on your Xbox or in this handheld." Sony's been trying to move toward a similar relationship between the PS3 and PSP but it remains a work in progress.

So, is the rumor legit? Will we see a new portable entertainment system from Microsoft this year?

We're willing to buy into this one--to a degree. Our second-hand sources confirm that the Team Xbox post is basically on the money and that Microsoft is indeed prepping a device that's designed to compete with the iPod Touch, not the iPhone. As we said, we've been hearing bits and pieces of this rumor before. For instance, some alleged ZuneHD specs that were circulating earlier referred to "3D gaming" capabilities for the device. So it makes sense that the Zune HD--or Zune xYz--will have some tie in to Xbox Live Arcade games. And hopefully, Microsoft will having something to say about it at E3 next month.

What do you guys think? If true, is this a PSP, iPod Touch, and Nintendo DSi killer all rolled into one device?

(Source: Gizmodo via Team Xbox)

Update 4:19 pm: This story has been modified to include reaction from the creator of the card-counting iPhone app.

Since the July 2008 launch of the App Store, Apple has maintained a sort of moral code--a PG-13-type standard, if you will--surrounding the thousands of iPhone and iPod Touch applications available via the service.

That's why, for example, there are no iPhone porn apps, though it is certainly possible to access adult content optimized for the device.

Given that, one would think that Apple wouldn't have given the thumbs-up to an app that, if used in the most logical manner, could get someone arrested, or worse. But with an app called "A Blackjack Card Counter," that's not, in fact, the case.

'A Blackjack Card Counter,' an iPhone application that helps people count cards in blackjack, was the subject of an alert to Nevada casinos by that state's Gaming Control Board.

(Credit: Webtopia)

We've all seen the movies where the hot-shot gambler slips up and finds himself hustled off to a back room where a genial but brutal casino manager calmly breaks a few fingers while issuing a stern warning never to come back. Films like The Cooler, 21, Rounders, Casino and many others have made this kind of scene, even if it's not always about card counting, a staple of our imagination.

Yet card counting--a complex practice that gives practitioners a way to determine the optimal times to bet in blackjack--prevails to this day. And it's not even illegal, though being caught at it is sure to lead to a hasty expulsion from a casino, at best, or even the kind of back-room visit discussed above. What is definitely illegal, however, is the employment of any kind of electronic device that aids players in counting cards.

And that's where "A Blackjack Card Counter," and perhaps a few other iPhone apps come into play.

Earlier this month, the Nevada Gaming Control Board, itself tipped off by the California Bureau of Gambling Control, issued an alert to "all non-restricted licensees and interested parties"--the state's casinos--warning of the emergence of iPhone card counting apps.

"This blackjack card-counting program can be utilized on either the Apple iPhone or the Apple iPod Touch...Once this program is installed on the phone through the iTunes Web site it can make counting cards easy," Nevada Gaming Control Board member Randall Sayre wrote in the alert. "This program can be used in the 'stealth mode.' When the program is used in the 'stealth mode' the screen of the phone will remain shut off, and as long as the user knows where the keys are located, the program can be run effortlessly without detection."

And, as Sayre pointed out, "use of this type of program or possession of a device with this type of program on it--with the intent to use it--in a licensed gaming establishment, is a violation" of the law.

For its part, the makers of "A Blackjack Card Counter," an Australian outfit called Webtopia, couldn't be happier about the attention being paid to its app as a result of its potentially illegal nature.

"Since the Nevada Gaming Control Board warned casinos about 'A Blackjack Card Counter' there's been an unprecedented demand for this app," Webtopia wrote in the tool's official App Store description. "Now you can see what all the fuss (is) about at a very reasonable price."