Posted by Keenan "SuperMario290" in Gadgets, Phones | 1 comment

Get an iPhone for Free With the Contract!…In Japan…

The iPhone isn’t doing as hot in Japan as it is in the States. That being said, the iPhone’s carrior, Softbank, is offering a free 8GB iPhone when you sign up for a contract.

Wired says the cause of this is the iPhone’s high monthly plan, lack of multimedia messaging support, and dependence on a computer for syncing as the main obstacles to popularity in Japan. Western companies historically have had trouble cracking the Japanese market (just ask Nokia and Microsoft how they’re doing).

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Posted by Keenan "SuperMario290" in Gaming in General | 2 comments

Microsoft admits to, defends banning Lesbian Xbox Live user

It’s hard on the online world to fight harassment, not to mention quiet tricky. Sony learned about this firsthand when Home was released and the words “gay” and “jew” were supposedly too offensive to be uttered by any of it’s members. Now, Microsoft and the Xbox Live service is in the spotlight as a woman was banned, and harassed, simply for noting she was a lesbian in her profile.

“I had a similar incident,” the woman wrote to the Consumerist, after reading about a man banned for having the word “gay” in his profile. “Only my account was suspended because I had said in my profile that I was a lesbian. I was harassed by several players, ‘chased’ to different maps/games to get away from their harassment. They followed me into the games and told all the other players to turn me in because they didn’t want to see that crap or their kids to see that crap.”

Microsoft then responded to Ars Technica when questioned about the incident by saying: “As stated in the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use, a member may not create a gamertag or use text in other profile fields that include comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate content of a potentially sexual nature,”. “Profiles that do are asked to change the language and suspended until changes are made. In regards to sexual orientation, for gamertags or profiles we do not allow expression of any type of orientation, be that hetero or other. Players can, however, self identify in voice communication where context is more easily explained to all players involved.”

Microsoft is standing strong on their policy for no harassment, saying that it was not tolerated in any form on Xbox Live. “[We] just wanted to reemphasize that we take any harassment seriously and would encourage the woman mentioned in the Consumerist story to come forward and report the harassment so that we can take action against those individuals,” the company representative told Arstechnica.com.

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Posted by Keenan "SuperMario290" in Companies, PS3 | 2 comments

GameStop scams Killzone 2 fans

After seeing 26 preowned copies of the game yesterday, I knew that Derek’s case was not a isolated incident.  This GameStop store, knowingly or not, sold the game early and then banked on all of the returns because the game “didn’t work” yet.  You could call it dickishness or ineptitude on GameStop’s part, or maybe you’d just blame the customers for somewhat stupidly selling the games back.  Either way, the situation stinks and certainly doesn’t do much to help GameStop’s image as an evil corporation.

Check out the full story here

Posted by Keenan "SuperMario290" in Companies | 1 comment

Alaska Airlines offering in-flight WiFi — but not in Alaska

It’s official, Alaska Airlines is now partnering with Row 44 to offer satellite-based internet on a very limited basis. It’s pretty obvious by now that is only offered on very select routes, or route in this case, debuting on 737-300 flights running between Seattle (SEA) and San Jose (SJC). The service will be free for the first 60 days, then users will have to pay to use the service.

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Posted by Keenan "SuperMario290" in Companies, Computers | 0 comments

Psion responds to “netbook” challengers, says it does so still sell the NetBook Pro

New info has broke about the fit between Psion, and those that use the term “netbook” to describe….a netbook. Psion is responding to to Intel and Dell’s latest charges by saying that contrary to what they said, the company does still sell the NetBook Pro. Psion says it “can understand why people might have assumed that sales ceased a while back,” it does in fact still sell the device, with the bulk of its sales being in the “highly specialized supply chain logistics area.” Psion then continues to say that all the invoices to prove multi-million dollar sales in the US in 2006 and sales that continue even to this day,” adding that, “just because we’re not selling tens of thousands through Best Buy doesn’t mean we’re not entitled to our trademark.” I think it will be a hell of a long time before we stopo using the Netbook term and name, but Psion can keep trying.

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Posted by Keenan "SuperMario290" in Gaming in General | 0 comments

Bad Company 2 release date revealed!

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has already been announced and confirmed, but when is it going to be released? There’s a message on the official Battlefield: Bad Company website with a large Pre-Order Now! (U.S. Only), banner. You then click on the link and are transferred to a page on the GameStop website. It is stated that the pre-ordered copies of the game will be sent on September 28th, 2009, and since there is a banner on the official website linking to the site, it would be the best source to trust.

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Posted by Keenan "SuperMario290" in Computers, Gadgets | 1 comment

SanDisk ImageMate Card Readers Actually….Look Cool?

Yeah I know, those are card readers that actually look kind of cool…and that they took time to make. SanDisk’s new ImageMate All-in-One and Multi-card slots look like they might be worth more than $5.

The transfer time being promised sounds pretty good, with up to 34MB/s with the speediest CompactFlash cards—and you can use multiple card simultaneously to move stuff between cards. It’s $30. The Multi-Card is a little pokier, at 30MB/s read times with a fast enough SDHC card. It’s $20.

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Posted by Keenan "SuperMario290" in Gaming in General | 1 comment

Target holds new PS3, Xbox 360 game clearance

It’s time to get tons and tons of games on clearance from the all great store Target this month. Games will be on both the Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 consoles.

Clearance titles include Tomb Raider: Underworld (Xbox 360) at $29.98 from $59.99, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (Xbox 360) at $19.98 from $39.99, Haze (PS3) at $14.98 from $29.99, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf 09 (PS3) at $29.98 from $59.99.

You can get a PS3 bundle that includes 160GB PS3, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, PAIN downloadable game voucher, and a Dualshock 3 controller for $499. Additionally, you can get 80GB model for $399.99.

The Resident Evil 5 Xbox 360 Elite SKU includes a red color console, red wireless controller, 120GB hard drive, and a token card including Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and exclusive Resident Evil Premium Theme for $399.99.

BAM! There you go, all of your gaming sales for the wonderful world of Target this month!

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Posted by Keenan "SuperMario290" in PS3 | 1 comment

Wheelman Dev: “The PS3 is a huge pain in the ass”

Man, it’s been ages since the last PS3 vs. 360 debate huh? Well, just when you thought that was the case, the Wheelman’s Executive Producer Shaun Himmerick has come along to save the day. All of this came from Himmerick being asked if it would like to develop for both the PS3 and Xbox 360 simultaneously.

“The politically incorrect answer is that the PS3 is a huge pain in the ass. Anyone making a game, if you’re going to make it for both [360 and PS3], just lead on the PS3 because if it works on the PS3 it’ll work on 360.”

“The easiest way to look at it is, the 360 has one big chunk of memory, but the PS3 has two chunks of memory that in total are the same size as the Xbox, but because they’re split you can’t share memory the same way. That will bite you in the ass, and it bit us in the ass bad.

“We had to play catch up on the PS3 because of the memory constraints and how it renders, how it processes is just different. And it’s harder on the PS3. The Xbox is just like a dumb PC, which is great because it’s easier to build a game on a PC.”

Next month is when the Wheelman ships on the PS3, 360, and PC. With these comments, it kind of leaves us to wonder if the game will be better on the 360…

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Posted by Keenan "SuperMario290" in Gaming in General | 0 comments

Gigabyte’s M1022, S1024, T1028 netbooks show themselves at CeBIT

It was said that Gigabyte would be showing off some new laptops CeBIT this week, and it looks like they held up with their promise. All three pack more or less the same standard netbook specs, but manage to also are completely different from each other at the same time. The M1022 “Booktop” comes with a rather unique dock that holds the system vertically and lets you hook up a monitor and your choice of peripherals. As you can see in the above picture, the T1028 ups all of the other netbooks by opting for the tablet form. Lastly, the ThinNote S1024 keeps things a bit more simple with a thin, more business-like design.

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