MicroTechXP

Usually we’re accustomed to turning over — not receiving — birthday cakes for others’ super-special day, but Sony’s PR team shipped out an unknown number of butter-cream frosting PS3 birthday cakes (with what appears to be an edible t-shirt iron-on) to press today. Well, your stunt worked Sony — you got a post on Engadget, and again, happy friggin birthday. Now, who wants to come over to Engadget HQ for some cake and warm milk?

News Source: Engadget

It’s been a common excuse for underwhelming early PS3 releases, but according to Infinity Ward, the developer of the Call of Duty series, developing the game on the PlayStation 3 was easy.
Many a developer has moaned at the complexity of the code behind sony’s next-gen console, but there were no problems for Infinity Ward as they worked on the newly released Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
They put their success down to the fact that they do not dedicated more energy to one platform - and in fact spread out resources and split up teams to work on the game across the different platforms.
Prioritising one console over the other has resulted in many games being released earlier on one console, and later on another - with the PS3 release of certain games often coming after the Xbox 360 release.
The developer stated, “There’s obviously some problem with all the delays we’re witnessing. I think it’s just down to allocation of resources. I think maybe people feel that they’re resource strapped and feel a little bit more comfortable working on the Xbox 360 as it’s been out a little longer [than the PS3].”
“We haven’t had any problems [with PS3] and that’s probably because of our development philosophy. We develop content-agnostic so we don’t have a lead platform. We have a team working on each of the different versions and everyone else forms a team who makes the content platform agnostic.”[PSU]

Since the announcement of the PS3 40GB and how it will not have BC with Last generation PS2 games people have been going all “OMG!!11 Ze world is ovah!!111, Another nail in Sony’s coffin, Annoying/putting off consumers by removing features = getting it right”. Now, these are some of the comments, well Sony can not be that stupid to remove BC without having a reason. Well there is a reason, and Sony knows they have to take a chance on this idea of theirs.

The 40GB PS3 will not have BC with PS2 games, but PS1 you will have BC as it has always been through software. They removed this to save some $$, you guys (and maybe gals) know what this is right? Its the green things in your pocket or err….the green things that had in your pocket, but you gave the nice gals that dance for you the rest of your money (). Now, Sony is trying to play this smart, they want something that is cheaper for the consumers, that still has its original PS3 roots. Like a Blu-Ray drive, Wireless Internet, HDMI ports, and a more. So instead they removed the BC with PS2 games, Memory card readers, and 2 USB ports. The removal of 2 USB ports may save them $2-5 per console and removing the memory reader ports may also save them about $30-45 per console, but BC with the PS2 may save them more. Now now, get your head out of your as* and in a few weeks we will see if BC is a big issue. If people are buying 40GB’s and sales are better than before then it means that they don’t care for BC and that their PS2 is good enough for them to be as their very own BC machine. If it is a big issue and the 40Gb is not selling well, then Sony needs to do some thinking again about bring BC to the 40GB via software like how the X360 does it. This will help them cut costs, but to this extent, so lets hope Sony is not that stupid not to make a wrong decision at this point, as it would not be good for them.

Looks like someone has anger issues.

Looks like Halo 3 has sold 2.63 million copies in its first week of launch. This is only in the first week, in the weeks to come there should be more! The Xbox 360 has also outsold the Wii in sales in a while. This proves that Halo has  an effect on the console and with the games great Multiplayer we should see Microsoft making some of the 1 billion loss of money toward hardware repair coming back!

View: Sales Chart

Looks like Halo 3 is being sold on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170148089206. It is being sold 14 days before the release of Halo 3 and this means that it should be leaked onto torrents etc. soon!

UPDATE: It looks as if eBay took down the auction or it was sold. Aaronc9198 was the seller: http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/aaronc9198/

Sony Ericsson says PlayStation Phone will come before Christmas of unknown year

Given the feature-filled mobile phones Sony produces as part of its partnership with Ericsson, it wouldn’t surprise many if the Japanese electronics giant eventually released a hybrid product that incorporates both communications and gaming functions into one unit.
The release of the Apple iPhone has further fueled speculation that Sony may be preparing a competing product that will be a mix of a Sony Ericsson phone and a PSP handheld console.
In a Pocket Gamer interview with Sony Ericsson’s gaming guru Peter Ahnegard at the Leipzig Games Convention, hints were dropped regarding the possibility of a PlayStation-branded mobile phone.
“Gaming is probably the most mature content area we have today in mobile phone and Sony Ericsson has always reflected that, having games embedded on our handsets for many years,” said Ahnegard, who also conceded that Sony Ericsson hasn’t yet put the same focus on gaming as the company had on music and imaging features as it has on its Walkman and Cyber-shot phones.
Despite not having specifically targeted a gaming brand as of yet, the power of the latest phones are beginning to catch up to previous generation consoles. “The power of the phones we’re creating now is phenomenal,” added Ahnegard. “Smartphones like the W960, P1 and associated families have hardware acceleration and OpenGL ES and are capable of providing gaming experiences on a level similar to PSP, certainly somewhere between PS1 and PS2.”
One potential challenge is that Sony Ericsson is facing is the ergonomics of melding together phone and game. Ahnegard explained, “It’s a tricky balance. The latest craze for slim handsets doesn’t really go hand-in-hand with gaming comfort. Console controllers are bulky for a good reason and have been designed with specific elements in mind, e.g. the need to be hardwearing, ergonomically comfortable, etc. The same considerations go into our phones and there are lots of elements that affect gaming performance, from the spacing between buttons to joypad position. We have to accept that some devices simply won’t be appropriate to drive some games and, in many cases, gaming or other entertainment content isn’t the prime concern behind the design.”
With Sony’s other cross-branding of its other product lines into its mobile phones, it’s almost expected that a PlayStation phone will appear sometime in the future. “Up until today we haven’t felt we could launch a PlayStation phone because it wouldn’t be recognized as a true continuation of that brand of products,” said Ahnegard, who then coyly added, “It’s obviously something that we’re looking at but right now I can’t really comment. Before Christmas, certainly… but exactly which Christmas I can’t confirm!”
News Source: Daily Tech

The teenage hacker who managed to unlock the iPhone so that it can be used with cellular networks other than AT&T will be trading his reworked gadget for a new car.

George Hotz, of Glen Rock, N.J., said he had reached the deal with CertiCell, a Louisville, Ky.-based mobile phone repair company. Hotz posted on his blog that he traded his modified iPhone for “a sweet Nissan 350Z and 3 8GB iPhones.” “This has been a great end to a great summer,” Hotz wrote.

The 17-year-old Hotz said he will be sending the three new iPhones to the three online collaborators who helped him divorce Apple Inc’s popular product from AT&T’s network. The job took 500 hours, or about 8 hours a day since the iPhone’s June 29 launch.

Hotz made the deal with Terry Daidone, co-founder of CertiCell, who also promised the teen a paid consulting job.

“We do not have any plans on the table right now to commercialize Mr. Hotz’ discovery,” Daidone said in a statement.

Yahoo Inc. is introducing new features Monday for its popular Web-based e-mail program, including software that allows computer users to type text messages on a keyboard and send them directly to someone’s cell phone. The enhancements make it easier to send e-mail, instant messages or text messages from a single Web site - no need to launch or toggle between separate applications or devices. The features will be available to users in the United States, Canada, India and the Philippines; users will be able to click on a contact and then select whether to send that person an e-mail, instant message or text message.
The most obvious beneficiaries will be parents, who will be able to use their keyboards to type messages sent to their children’s cell phones - no thumb-twisting typing on a dial pad, said Yahoo Vice President John Kremer. “We’re giving you the right way to connect at the right time with right person,” said Kremer, whose two preteen sons vastly prefer text and instant messages to e-mail. The changes come amid fierce competition among providers of free, Web-based e-mail services. Yahoo and Microsoft Corp.’s Hotmail have long dominated the niche, but Google Inc.’s Gmail has grown quickly since its introduction in April 2004. Users who don’t want the upgrades - or whose computers are too slow to handle them - can opt to remain with the current version, which Yahoo will call “Classic.”
View: Full Story @ SiliconValley.com

According to CNET’s News.com, processor-manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices will announce the imminent departure of Henri Richard, the company’s chief sales officer, later this afternoon. Richard’s loss is a very significant development in what has been a disastrous year for AMD. The company’s flagship product for 2007, a quad-core server chip known as Barcelona, will arrive six months later than expected after a number of technical glitches; in the interim, AMD has lost a substancial amount of money trying to compete against Intel’s quad-core chips by slashing the prices of its dual-core chips.
Taking up his position in 2002, Richard has been a very public figure at AMD, as opposed to CEO Hector Ruiz and COO Dirk Meyer. He presided over a question-and-answer session with reporters last month at AMD’s analyst meeting, and has been one of the leading executive voices behind AMD’s antitrust campaign against Intel. An AMD representative declined to comment on the report but if the date of Richard’s departure is accurate, the company will have to pull off its biggest product launch of the year with Barcelona without its head salesman. 
View: Full Story @ C|Net