Category: Mobile Tech

Windows Phone 7 Launch Games and Xbox Live Connectivity Details

Microsoft has announced a ton of details on the gaming capabilities of its upcoming Windows Phone 7, including how the mobile OS interacts with Xbox Live. Here are the press release bullet points Xbox Live connectivity:

  • Be omnipotent. View, access and launch your full game library from one easy-to-navigate hub.
  • Get mad props. Earn, view and track Achievements, view Xbox Live leaderboards and build your Gamerscore every time you play an Xbox Live title.
  • Release your inner Mini Me. Connect to your Xbox Live profile and Avatar, or easily create a new one right from the phone.
  • Get tricky. Access Spotlight feeds, including the latest game titles, breaking news from Xbox LIVE, game tips and tricks, and more.
  • Play before you pay. Easily find, try and buy the games you want, either in the Marketplace or Games hub.
  • Flaunt your skills. Invite, connect and play against friends on other Windows Phone 7 phones or PCs with turn-based (asynchronous) multiplayer gaming.

Microsoft has also promised more than 50 launch games. Here are the upcoming Windows Phone 7 titles and their respective publishers:

  • 3D Brick Breaker Revolution (Digital Chocolate)
  • Age of Zombies (Halfbrick)
  • Armor Valley (Protégé Games)
  • Asphalt 5 (Gameloft)
  • Assassins Creed (Gameloft)
  • Bejeweled™ Live (PopCap)
  • Bloons TD (Digital Goldfish)
  • Brain Challenge (Gameloft)
  • Bubble Town 2 (i-Play)
  • Butterfly ( Press Start Studio)
  • CarneyVale Showtime (MGS)
  • Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst (MGS)
  • De Blob Revolution (THQ)
  • Deal or No Deal 2010 (i-Play)
  • Earthworm Jim (Gameloft)
  • Fast & Furious 7 (i-Play)
  • Fight Game Rivals (Rough Cookie)
  • Finger Physics (Mobliss Inc.)
  • Flight Control (Namco Bandai)
  • Flowerz (Carbonated Games)
  • Frogger (Konami Digital Entertainment)
  • Fruit Ninja (Halfbrick)
  • Game Chest-Board (MGS)
  • Game Chest-Card (MGS)
  • Game Chest-Logic (MGS)
  • Game Chest-Solitaire (MGS)
  • GeoDefense (Critical Thought)
  • Ghostscape (Psionic)
  • Glow Artisan (Powerhead Games)
  • Glyder 2 (Glu Mobile)
  • Guitar Hero 5 (Glu Mobile)
  • Halo Waypoint (MGS)
  • Hexic Rush (Carbonated Games)
  • I Dig It (InMotion)
  • iBlast Moki (Godzilab)
  • ilomilo (MGS)
  • Implode XL (IUGO)
  • Iquarium (Infinite Dreams)
  • Jet Car Stunts (True Axis)
  • Let’s Golf 2 (Gameloft)
  • Little Wheel (One click dog)
  • Loondon (Flip N Tale)
  • Max and the Magic Marker (PressPlay)
  • Mini Squadron (Supermono Limited)
  • More Brain Exercise (Namco Bandai)
  • O.M.G. (Arkedo)
  • Puzzle Quest 2 (Namco Bandai)
  • Real Soccer 2 (Gameloft)
  • The Revenants (Chaotic Moon)
  • Rise of Glory (Revo Solutions)
  • Rocket Riot (Codeglue)
  • Splinter Cell Conviction (Gameloft)
  • Star Wars: Battle for Hoth (THQ)
  • Star Wars: Cantina (THQ)
  • The Harvest (MGS)
  • The Oregon Trail (Gameloft)
  • Tower Bloxx NY (Digital Chocolate)
  • Twin Blades (Press Start Studio)
  • UNO (Gameloft)
  • Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet (i-Play)
  • Zombie Attack! (IUGO)
  • Zombies!!!! (Babaroga)

In addition to strong thid-party support, it’s great to see first-party franchises like Crackdown and Halo coming to Windows Phone 7. Like I’ve said several times before, Microsoft is going to have an extremely difficult time catching up to Apple iOS and Google Android. Gaming is one of the ways it can differentiate Windows Phone 7 from its competitors. The initial announcements are a great start and are making gamers pay attention to the OS. It also makes the Android/PSP rumor a bit more interesting, hey?

As always, I want to know what you think about Windows Phone 7’s gaming initiatives. Fire away (please)!

“PSP Phone” Running Google Android 3.0 Coming Soon?

Engadget delivered a hot, Hot, HOT scoop on a Sony Ericcson “PSP” phone running Google Android 3.0 (Gingerbread). The device is currently under the SE’s Xperia brand, but will likely have PlayStation branding too. Here’s a chunk of details from the site:

The device is described as cross between the Samsung Captivate and the PSP Go — in other words, it’s a landscape slider with game controls in place of the typical QWERTY keyboard. The D-pad is here, but instead of the small joystick, the device will have what was described as a “long touch pad” for analog controls, along with standard PSP buttons and shoulder buttons. The phone has a large display, described as being between 3.7 and 4.1 inches with WVGA or better resolution, a 5 megapixel camera that we’re told might not be final, and it’ll likely have a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU on board.

Games will be graphically in the range of PSX or PSP games, meaning true 3D gaming is headed to Android. Titles currently being shown off seem to be focused around some older PSX as well as new PSP offerings, with God of War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and LittleBigPlanet possibly on tap, and future plans for titles which incorporate augmented reality features.

I encourage you to pay Engadget a visit to get more information on this rumored phone. The site has more details and its writers should be rewarded with traffic for getting such a huge story.

After you’ve digested some details and given it some thought, please let me know what you think of the whole deal. You interested? Do you think it can compete with the Apple iPhone? Will it help Sony compete better with Nintendo in the handheld space? An excellent PSP platform running on a phone has all sorts of interesting implications and could change the mobile games market in a huge way. I’m hoping this all pans out, just to watch the awesome disruption.

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Motorola Droid 2 “R2-D2” Edition Looks Completely Awesome

Dustin Roberts claims that this is a photo of the upcoming R2-D2 edition of the Motorola Droid 2 for Verizon. In my nerdy opinion, it looks completely awesome! While I greatly prefer the Droid X over the Droid 2, the look of this limited edition phone is so tempting for the geek cred. What do you think of it? Is it the Droid you’re looking for?

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More iPhone 4 Verizon Musings + AT&T Exclusivity Ending Soon?

The iPhone 4 rumor mongers have been having a ball with Steve Cheney’s blog post on TechCrunch. While he started out strong by saying, “I am going to go on record to say Verizon will be selling an iPhone this coming January,” he kind of pussies out at the end by adding, “I can’t say with 100% accuracy that an iPhone will hit Verizon store shelves in January.” (Pussies out is a technical term, btw.)

Perhaps the more interesting news is that AT&T addressed the possibility of losing iPhone exclusivity in the near future. The company seems to be prepping investors for the loss of some kind of exclusivity…and I’m betting Wall Street doesn’t care much about the BlackBerry Torch. The Wall Street Journal reported:

AT&T Inc. said Friday it doesn’t expect to suffer a “material negative impact” from the end of its exclusive arrangements to carry handsets, including its lucrative deal for Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

“We do not expect any such terminations to have a material negative impact on our wireless segment income, consolidated operating margin or our cash from operations,” AT&T said in the filing with regulators on Friday.

So there’s lots of interesting information floating around that points to a CDMA carrier — most are thinking Verizon, but Sprint isn’t out of the question — getting the iPhone 4 in January 2011. What do you think of the latest info? Are you still hoping that the excellent iPhone 4 gets paired with a superior network? Or are you tired of all the talk?

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Future Apple Products to Use LiquidMetal’s Amorphous Material

I was super excited yesterday when I learned that Apple acquired exclusive rights to LiquidMetal’s technologies. Part of it was that I immediately envisioned using a Terminator T-1000 for this story and part of it was because it gives Apple new trails to blaze.

While most people notice that Apple’s industrial design is miles ahead of most of its competitors, less people realize that its use of materials is also more advanced. Several companies offer aluminum laptops, but the unibody construction of the MacBook Pro is fairly unique and executed better than anyone else. The iPhone 4 is another example; how many other mobile phones are glass sandwiches?

LiquidMetal’s technology should lead to lighter and stronger Apple products in the future. Anyone care to guess what they could be? Do you expect the tech to be used in future generations of MacBook and iPhone products? Or will the LiquidMetal lead to the return of the eMac? Or maybe something new, like the T-1000, is on the horizon.

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More Apple Rumors: 3″ iPod Touch and 7″ iPad Mini?

Jer at iLounge posted a slew of Apple rumors the other day. Some of them will surely pan out, while others seem like a stretch (he admits this too). The two rumors I found particularly interesting had to do with screen size changes. Here’s the skinny:

There’s also continued chatter about a three-inch touchscreen that could make its way into an iPod, shaving half an inch off the diagonal of the current iPod touch.

A seven-inch-screened version of the iPad is substantially finished and will be ready for announcement either later this year or early in 2011. Apple has been prototyping devices with screens of this size for a long time—quite possibly predating the original iPhone.

It sounds odd for the iPod Touch to be getting a smaller screen. If it used Retina Display, that would be sorta kinda acceptable, but purported prototypes show that the next iPod Touch looks more like last year’s model than the iPhone 4.

A seven-inch iPad has the potential to shake up the market. Apple has sold millions of iPads, but some people — especially those that don’t understand the difference between data-consumption and data-creation devices — are turned off by the price. A cheaper iPad — I’m thinking $249 to $299 — would be killer. It would also take some of the shine off of Amazon’s recently price slashed Kindle. What I really want is an iPad with a camera and Retina Display…but I don’t see that happening until Q2 2011, at the earliest.

Let me know what you think of this batch of Mac rumors (please!). Any of ’em you find particularly juicy?

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Clear iSpot Offers Cheap 4G WiMax to iPhone, iPad, and iPod Users

Clear has announced the iSpot, a WiMax router that offers wireless high-speed Internet access for up to eight devices…as long as those devices are iPhones, iPads, and iPods. The device normally costs $99.99, but the company is running a special and offering it for $29. Monthly service costs $25, which is $15 cheaper than Clear’s cheapest plan that covers all devices.

If you live in an area that’s covered by Clear and are a Machole, the iSpot is an interesting device. The hardware and service are cheap, while the data rates are fantastic (though easily mucked with by buildings). Any of you intersted in the iSpot?

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HTC Glacier (Project Emerald) Benchmarks Totally Rock

The fine fellows at Android Community got their hands on benchmark results for the upcoming HTC Glacier, which is rumored to be the dual-core Snapdragon phone that’s behind T-Mobile’s Project Emerald. The results are frickin’ awesome. Check it out:

The Glacier managed to pull 1432 frames in the GLBenchmark Pro ES 1.1 CPU Skinning test consistently. While the Droid X reached 856 frames, the EVO managed 516 frames, and the G1 pulled a parsley 113 frames. While the iPhone 4 did 1016 frames. Shockingly enough, or perhaps not at all, the Vibrant reached 1409 frames. So, with those numbers, especially against the 1GHz Snapdragon processor in the EVO, the tipster believes that the 1432 frames (versus 516) means that the Glacier could very well be the dual-core monstrosity that we’ve all been waiting for.

I’m sold! Hmmm…the Samsung Vibrant posted some pretty stout numbers too — too bad I want a front-facing camera and LED flash. Decisions, decisions. Anyway, let me know if you’re interested in the HTC Glacier. A dual-core Snapdragon phone running Google Android with HTC Sense sounds brilliant to me. Et vous?

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Coffee Talk #192: “CSR Nightmares” or “Sprint CSRs Suck”

After installing FroYo on my Evo 4G, I decided that I was going to commit to the phone and reactivate it. This is a big deal for me as I have all sorts of commitment issues. I figured A) it’s a great phone that was free, B) I’m eligible for an upgrade straight away, and C) I get a service discount as a Google I/O attendee. After 25 minutes and three CSRs, I was unable to activate the phone with the discounted plan.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, what “taking my talents to South Beach” should be code for, what’s next for Juan Manuel Marquez, or those damn Devil Rays, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

After installing FroYo on my Evo 4G, I decided that I was going to commit to the phone and reactivate it. This is a big deal for me as I have all sorts of commitment issues. I figured A) it’s a great phone that was free, B) I’m eligible for an upgrade straight away, and C) I get a service discount as a Google I/O attendee. After 25 minutes and three CSRs, I was unable to activate the phone with the discounted plan.

I’m amazed that all three reps had no what I was talking about. Each of them insisted that I needed a Sprint employee’s email address and ID number. I have a sell sheet from the conference that clearly states that I’m eligible for the discount. It’s one thing for them not to know about Google I/O, but it’s another to be completely ignorant of a discount offer. I’m going to drop by a Sprint store today to try and activate the phone; I’m positive the CSRs there will also fail, but it should be good for a laugh. *sigh* This is why I went to T-Mobile….

Anyway, I’d love to hear some of your customer service nightmares. Whether it’s games, electronics, Internet service, or Real Dolls, I’m sure you guys and gals have some great stories to share. Let ’em fly (please)!

Today’s Poll: Is the BlackBerry Torch 9800 Enough to Help RIM?

Notice I didn’t use the phrase “save RIM” — the company is still kicking ass in the corporate space. In the consumer space, it’s losing ground to Apple iOS and Google Android. The BlackBerry Torch, armed with BlackBerry OS 6, is the first device geared towards retaining and winning back customers that want modern features like a WebKit browser, tightly integrated social networking, and adroit media handling. Do you think it’s enough to help RIM? Or will BlackBerry phones continue to lose users in the consumer space?

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