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Games

Heavy Rain Previews Show Promise 84

As the February release date for Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain nears, several publications have gotten a chance for some hands-on time with the game and seem to be intrigued by what they saw. Quoting the Opposable Thumbs blog: "The game grabs you during the quiet moments where nothing 'happens.' When you look at a picture your child drew. When you're questioning someone about a crime. When you're trying to figure out how to react to a violent situation. The preview we were sent put me in different situations as I played a small handful of characters, and each one provided a few tiny moments that were surprising in terms of storytelling or subtlety." Eurogamer's previewer had a similar reaction: "To my great delight as well — Heavy Rain isn't a mature game because it has unhappy families and moody lighting, it's a mature game because it anticipates an adult response from the player and is prepared to receive it."

Submission + - Android Market grows up, hits 20,000 apps mileston (wiseandroid.com) 1

xchg writes: Rest assured that 2010 is going to be a big year for the Android operating system, with many new handsets finding their way to stores around the world (including Google’s own phone) and an increasing amount of developers building tools, games and the likes for the fast-growing platform.
Google

Submission + - LA City goes Google Apps (with Microsoft cash) (cio.com.au)

Dan Jones writes: Los Angeles City Council has approved a US$7.25 million, five-year deal with Google in which the city will adopt Gmail and other Google Apps. Interestingly, just over $1.5 million for the project will come from the payout of a 2006 class action lawsuit between the City and Microsoft (Microsoft paid $70 million three years ago to settle the suit by six California counties and cities who alleged that Microsoft used its monopoly position to overcharge for software). The city will migrate from Novell GroupWise e-mail servers. For security, Google will provide a new separate data environment called 'GovCloud' to store both applications and data in a completely segregated environment that will only be used by public agencies. This GovCloud would be encrypted and 'physically and logically segregated' from Google's standard applications. Has cloud computing stepped up to prime time?
Cellphones

Submission + - Verizon Announces Droid's Launch Date (computerworld.com)

adeelarshad82 writes: Motorola Droid (Images and video) made its debut today after a relatively brief, if attention grabbing, ad campaign that targeted the iPhone's perceived shortcomings. The handset, which runs the recently announced Android 2.0 software, will be available starting Nov. 6 exclusively on the Verizon Wireless network. It will cost $199 with a two-year contract, after a $100 mail-in rebate. As an earlier product leak suggested, the 2.4 in.by 4.6 in. by .5-in. phone's specs feature a 5-megapixel camera, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and built-in GPS with those snazzy new turn-by-turn directions from Google. The Droid has a TI OMAP 3430 processor which can run at up to 600-MHz, Motorola chief executive Sanjay Jha said in a press conference on Tuesday. The processor changes speed based on the demands of running programs. The OMAP 3430 is based on ARM's Cortex-A8 architecture, which is newer and faster than the ARM11 used in previous Android phones.

Comment Sony - Exert Online Control? Are You Joking? (Score 4, Informative) 154

What delusional fantasy world are you living in?

Sony has an online service that is more like the open PC gaming online model than any other console manufacturer:

* Free online play for all non-MMORPG titles

* Dedicated servers

* Open to mods and other free content from developers

It's Microsoft with the absurd grip on their online service that is continually causing developers nightmares in dealing with. It took Epic a half a year to rewrite/work around Microsoft's online service's restrictions to get the latest Unreal Tournament out the door after it had no problems whatsoever with PCs and Sony's PS3.

And these problems Microsoft is causing for Cryptic Studios is just the latest in other MMORPG developers before them.

Comment Do Not Call Has Worked Perfectely For Me (Score 3, Informative) 277

"There's already a "Do not call" mechanism that's ignored"

I haven't gotten a single call on my mail line since the day I put it on the Do Not Call List.

Recently I got another number and couldn't figure out why I was suddenly getting unsolicited calls. Then I remembered the DNC List and once again haven't gotten a single unwanted call.

Comment Google Voice Is Incredible (Score 5, Insightful) 304

Apple blocking Google Voice makes buying an iPhone not even a possiblity now that I have had Google Voice for a month or so.

I know many of these features have existed in other products, but that doesn't change the fact that Google Voice has been as big a lifestyle change as getting TiVo for the first time 7 or 8 years ago.

* The voice mail transcripts are my favorite thing. Perfectly accurate so far. Love being able to read voice mails right from my computer

* Free SMS in a GMail like interface

* Everyone now has my Google Number and all my phones are unified behind that single number and I am now completely free to pick up and switch to a new cellphone as the flood of Android phones come out over the next year

Sony

Submission + - Sony PlayStation 3 Slim Unveiled and Price Slashed

An anonymous reader writes: The rumors of a Playstation 3 being slashed from $399 to $299 is here and K-Mart let the cat out of the bag as it features an ad on its home page that reveals the price cuts as well as the announcement of a new Sony PS3 Slim edition, priced at only $299. You can go ahead and preorder the new PS3 Slim for $299 and it will be available on August 24th, 2009. Sony has a press event today, which I'm sure will announce the details of the new PS3 Slim as well as the price reduction. Perhaps there will be even more news to be had.
Microsoft

Submission + - Survey Puts Xbox 360 Failure Rate at 54.2% (consumerist.com)

eldavojohn writes: According to the print edition of Game Informer, 5,000 surveyed people said the XBox 360 fails over half the time. The same survey found failure rates of 10.6% for Sony's PS3 and 6.8% on Nintendo's Wii. Microsoft trounced the competition with over five times the next highest failure rate. The article also notes that the survey revealed a skew to the numbers as the Xbox's were the most used consoles: 'Results said 40.3 percent of 360 owners use the console three to five hours a day, compared to 37 percent of PS3 owners. Meanwhile, the plurality of Wii owners (41.4 percent) play their consoles less than an hour a day.' Even worse news for Microsoft is that only 3.8% said they would buy another Xbox (due to failures) and the survey found they had rather shoddy customer service.
Microsoft

Dell Says High Linux Netbook Returns a "Non-Issue" 324

Michiel Roos notes that at this week's OpenSource World, a Dell executive deflated Microsoft's claims that Linux notebooks have return rates four or five times higher than Windows machines. "Todd Finch, Dell senior product marketing manager, said the number of Linux returns are approximately the same as those for Windows netbooks. He categorized the matter of returns as a 'non-issue.' 'They are making something of nothing,' he said of Microsoft's claims."
The Courts

Danish FreeBSD Dev. Sues Lenovo Over "Microsoft Tax" 318

Handbrewer writes "The FreeBSD developer Poul-Henning Kamp (phk) has sued Lenovo in Denmark (Google translation, original here) over their refusal to refund the Windows Vista Business license, even though he declined the EULA during installation. Lenovo argues that they sell the computer as a full product, and that they cannot refund it partially, such as the power supply or the OS even if people intend to use a different one. This seems to be contrary to previous rulings in the EU where Acer and HP has been forced to refund the 'Microsoft tax.'"

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