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Classic Games (Games)

M.U.L.E. Is Back 110

jmp_nyc writes "The developers at Turborilla have remade the 1983 classic game M.U.L.E. The game is free, and has slightly updated graphics, but more or less the same gameplay as the original version. As with the original game, up to four players can play against each other (or fewer than four with AI players taking the other spots). Unlike the original version, the four players can play against each other online. For those of you not familiar with M.U.L.E., it was one of the earliest economic simulation games, revolving around the colonization of the fictitious planet Irata (Atari spelled backwards). I have fond memories of spending what seemed like days at a time playing the game, as it's quite addictive, with the gameplay seeming simpler than it turns out to be. I'm sure I'm not the only Slashdotter who had a nasty M.U.L.E. addiction back in the day and would like a dose of nostalgia every now and then."

Apple Orders 10 Million Tablets? 221

Arvisp writes "According to a blog post by former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee, Apple plans to produce nearly 10 million tablets in the still-unannounced product's first year. If Lee's blog post is to be believed, Apple plans to sell nearly twice as many tablets as it did iPhones in the product's first year."
United States

Journal Journal: Hurting whales more important than national security

In the newest slap to the face of the environmentalists, the US Navy has decided to not release where sonar has been used through out the world over the past four years. Why is this an issue? Because the National Resources Defense Council has come to the idea of suing the US Navy to "ensure sailors use sonar in a way that does not harm whales and other marine mammals." The claim is that s
Book Reviews

Pro Java ME MMAPI 20

Cory Foy writes "Several months ago Vikram Goyal emailed me letting me know he had a new book coming out from Apress, Pro Java ME MMAPI: Mobile Media API for Java Micro Edition. Having done mobile device development using J2ME, I knew how difficult it can be to do, or explain, some of the tricks in device development. So I wanted to see if this book could rise up to the challenge." Read below for the rest of Cory's review.
Puzzle Games (Games)

Submission + - The "Godfather of Sudoku"

circletimessquare writes: "The New York Times profiles 55 year old Maki Kaji who runs Nikoli, in it's article "Inside Japan's Puzzle Palace. Nikoli is a puzzle publisher that prides itself on 'a kind of democratization of puzzle invention. The company itself does not actually create many new puzzles — an American invented an earlier version of sudoku, for example. Instead, Nikoli provides a forum for testing and perfecting them.' Also notable is how Mr. Kaji describes how he did not get the trademark for Sudoku in the United States before it was too late. But reminescent of a theme many Slashdotters will find familiar about intellectual property: 'In hindsight, though, he now thinks that oversight was a brilliant mistake. The fact that no one controlled sudoku's intellectual property rights let the game's popularity grow unfettered, Mr. Kaji says.' Will Nikoli be the source of the next big puzzle fad after Sudoku?"
Space

Submission + - NASA create 3D movie of Mars surface

Matthew Sparkes writes: "NASA have created virtual flyovers of two Mars rover landing sites using 3D imagery from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The images were made using the most powerful camera ever sent to another planet, MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). The three-dimensional information is obtained by taking pairs of images from slightly different vantage points as the spacecraft orbits the Red Planet."
Portables (Games)

Any Truth To PSP Revision Rumours ? 61

Team Purple writes "Kotaku seems to be convinced a new revision of Sony's PlayStation Portable will be hitting by the end of the year. Yesterday, they posted a rumor that the system would arrive sometime this year, and would feature, among other things, faster load times, 8 GB of built-in flash memory, and the possibility of a touch screen and a built in camera. Today, GamesIndustry.biz has a story highlighting a speech by SCE UK bigwig Ray Maguire, saying that a new 'smaller, lighter' PSP was in the works. Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs seems less than convinced, and CVG reports other Sony officials say Maguire's comments were blown out of proportion." For whatever it's worth, at the Sony blogger event last week the PSP folks onhand were adamant that there wouldn't be a hardware revision any time soon.
Microsoft

Microsoft Threatened With Fines By EU Again 184

ukhackster writes "The EC is threatening Microsoft with yet more fines. This time, it's over the interoperability protocols that Microsoft has been ordered to open up to its rivals. The EC has examined 1,500 pages of information about the protocols, and concluded that they 'lack significant innovation'. This is pretty damning for both Microsoft and the patent system, as it has been awarded 36 patents covering this technology and has another 37 pending. Could this encourage someone like the EFF to start pushing to get these patents overturned? The EU has a FAQ about this issue, containing additional details on the subject.
Music

Music Execs Say Apple's DRM Hurting Industry 405

EMB Numbers writes "C-Net says last year saw a 131 percent jump in digital sales, but overall the industry still saw about a 4 percent decline in revenue. Some executives at this week's Digital Music Forum East conference lashed out at Jobs, blaming Apple and its CEO for their troubles. The impression at the conference was that Jobs' call three weeks ago for DRM-free music was anything but sincere. As the article puts it, 'Apple has maintained a stranglehold on the digital music industry by locking up iTunes music with DRM ... and "it's causing everybody else who is participating in the marketplace — the other service providers, the labels, the users — a lot of pain. If they could simply open it up, everybody would love them.""

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