Tesco has revamped its tariffs for the iPhone, reducing prices for handsets and offering shorter term contracts.
According to Pocket Lint, the retailer is offering the eight GB iPhone 3G for £100, the 3GS 16GB for £200 and the 3GS 32GB for £275, on a 12-month contract at £35 per month. The contract includes unlimited texts, data and Wi-Fi, and 750 free minutes of calls.
Those who choose a two year contract at £45 per month will receive their iPhone 3GS 16GB handset for free.
“Tesco Mobile's iPhone tariffs have been very popular,” said Tesco Mobile’s CEO, Lance Batchelor. “We've now made them even better, with a lower upfront cost for iPhone and a new 12-month contract.”

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/33416...-iPhone-prices ...

Microsoft has changed the options for Microsoft Points in the US, allowing users to purchase the currency in increments of 400, 800 and 1200, closer matching the price of full downloadable games.

The Xbox Live currency has been criticised in the past for forcing users to buy in increments of 500, leaving consumers with small, unused amounts after a purchase.

Earlier this year, the company said that it was trying to be more transparent with its online currency, claiming the Points system was never designed to mislead consumers.

Microsoft continues to use its own currency system, while rival Sony uses real-world currency local to the region on its PlayStation Network.

European prices for Microsoft Points currently remain unchanged.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...m-on-xbox-live ...

News via gxmod

RRC2soft offers a small update of its adaptation of the game Knytt Stories for the Nintendo DS. Various corrections were made to remedy the problems that we could meet to play or finish certain levels.

http://www.rodrigoroman.com/rrc2soft/nds_dsknytt.html ...

Lino has released an updated version of his Facebook app for the nintendo DS:

No idea whats new with this release: ...

News via Ninmax

Nightfox offers us the BETA 2 Mind Maze, a homebrew containing a total of three mini-games, all playable 100% touch screen, including a memory game, a puzzle game and a maze game, the latter with mild 3D graphics. When you play for the first time there is a load that lasts about one minute.
In Mind Maze must hold the DS to the horizontal.

So if, as Promised yesterday, here you Have the Mind Maze BETA 2.
Beside The Obvious Improvements Since the last version, Were Also added 6 puzzles end the first Three of the hands of ToniMax and 3 FOLLOWING Kerun Sue (not leave here to visit Blog Loved blogs.gamefilia.com / suekeruna, giving a Variety of Styles That I hope you enjoy it.

http://blogs.gamefilia.com/knightfox ...

s_hansse has released a new version of his Game for the DS:

It will be a remake of Glace by Tommy Visic. You can find the orginal Glace by searching for Glace Tommy Visic.


But here's the last version with the greater text colors.
Please give me repeat, if the scrolling has to be changed anymore. My little sister want Glace to move slower, as she always flews off the ice-blocks.

What do you think? ...

Pate has released a new version of his Dos Emulator for the Nintendo DS, heres whats new:

This is not version 0.08 alpha, but version 0.10 beta! I decided to increase the version number and move DSx86 forward from the Alpha state with this version, as it has quite a lot of changes and new features. This also means it probably has quite a lot of new bugs as well, so everything might not work quite right yet. But, this version does run Wolfenstein 3D, at least! :-)


Here is the almost complete list of changes I made into this version (direct from my updated TODO list). If you recognize the game name (in parentheses), feel free to test the game again in this version, you should get further in the game now!

VGA Mode-X support (Wolfenstein 3D, Fox Ranger). DSx86 now supports all 320-pixel wide Mode-X (and Mode-Y) variations (320x200, 320x240, 320x400, 320x480). In the modes with 400 or more lines the screen is prescaled vertically to 200 or 240 lines, even in ZOOM mode. This is to keep the aspect ratio sensible. If this scaling makes small fonts hard to read, try using screen update mode "Direct", as that will alternate between odd and even rows to display (a sort of jittering effect).
Mouse support (MJLAPTOP, etc.). You can select whether the D-Pad emulates cursor keys or mouse by toggling the "Mouse"/"Keybd" text on the touchpad. A/B buttons emulate the mouse buttons when in mouse mode.
CGA 640x200 monochrome mode support added (MJLAPTOP).
Key Repeat support (4DOS, etc.). Now when you keep the button (real or virtual) down, it will repeat, like in a real PC keyboard. This is the one change that I am most worried might have broken something.
Bug in "mov reg16,[BP+SI]" and "mov reg16,[BP+DI]" opcodes fixed (WIN).
Bug in "Interrupt Enabled" flag setting after returning from INT2F fixed (Wolfenstein 3D).
Bug in moving data within the EGA VRAM fixed.
Fixed the Brown color in the default EGA palette (KEEN4).
New game-specific "jpe" opcode hack added (CALGAMES).
New game-specific "jpo" opcode hack added (TOUTRUN).
Added "insb" opcode handling (OPENING).
Added all "imul r16, r16, imm16" opcodes (NCMAIN).
Added "imul r16, [di+disp16], imm8" opcodes (UNP2).
Added "imul r16, [idx+disp8], imm16" opcodes (STARTREK).
Added support for input from port 3C2 (FD).
Added support for input from port 3CC (RAIDEN).
Added support for input from port 3D9 (Crazy Cars).
Ignore "Tandy 1000SL/TL - SET UP SOUND MULTIPLEXOR" BIOS call (MIDWNTR).
Support for moving data from EGA VRAM to RAM added (REVENGE, BL, RAMPAGE).
EGA opcode "and es:[di],ax" added (BARD, DK).
EGA opcode "mov byte es:[disp16],imm8" added (KEEN1).
EGA opcode "mov es:[si],ax" added (G).
EGA opcode "and ax,es:[di+disp8]" added (SR).
MCGA Direct mode opcode "mov es:[di],bh" added (CREEPERS).
MCGA Direct mode opcode "mov es:[bx],al" added (MW).
Opcode "aad" handling added (JS3).
Added handling for opcode "repe scasw" when direction=down (STAROPEN, SS, PAL).
Opcode "sar word [bp+disp8],imm8" handling added (RUNVGA).
Added support for teletype text output in EGA mode (ULTIMA).
Added support for teletype text output in MCGA mode (EAGLE).
Added support for "GET ALL PALETTE REGS (VGA)" BIOS call (BASH1).
Added support for "WRITE STRING" BIOS call (RICK2, !STUNTS).
Added support for DOS text output in EGA mode (SIMCITY, SKWEEK).

The new Mode-X support requires it's own complete set of graphics opcodes, pretty much similarly to the EGA handling. I have only added very few of those opcodes, so it is extremely likely that any other games besides those I have tested that use Mode-X will crash with an unsupported opcode error. Please just send me the log file for all such games, and I'll add those opcodes to the next version! Btw, if a game displayed several small screens in the previous DSx86 version, it most likely used Mode-X, so please test it again in this version.

The past couple of days I have been working on improving the EMS memory support, as it is currently the only major obstacle in making Master of Orion (which uses Mode-X) run in DSx86. I actually tested MOO by giving it the full megabyte of EMS in DSx86 and got it to display all of the intro and go into the initial menu, but the graphics were pretty badly garbled as it kept receiving wrong data from my broken EMS handling. Sadly, so far I haven't been able to fix my EMS implementation and am having a hard time figuring out what exactly goes wrong there, so this version still has the limited amount of EMS enabled. Also, some games (like MOO and Wolfenstein 3D) want to check the availability of EMS using the EMMXXXX0 device, which is not yet supported in DSx86. That's why Wolfenstein 3D does not see the EMS memory (in case you were wondering :-).

I still have quite a lot of issues remaining in my TODO list, and I'll keep on working on the EMS memory problem, but feel free to send me your log files and information about other isues in this version again! ...

Recently, Sony slammed the door on Linux on the PS3, which ironically invited in a slew of hackers salivating for a challenge. The hacker community claimed taking functionality away was a call to arms. They wanted to retaliate against the corporate bad guys like in The Matrix.


But what about those other game systems they've hacked? What did Xbox 360, PSP, Wii, or the DS ever do to them? Remove any features? No. Nothing. Yet they are among the most heavily pirated systems right now.

So are these hackers really looking out for the best interests of the consumers? Maybe. But mostly not. It certainly justifies their actions in the public arena and garners them support. But the reason behind hacking is a simple truth that is not much discussed. Considering that the legality of it all lies in favor with Sony, who are the intellectual and copyright holders, hackers are committing felony by taking away profits from them and account for untold losses in sales. That is why hackers take on the Robin Hood persona in order to gain endorsement and validation from the public.

This is not to say that the existence of hackers is devoid of any benefit. Far from it. Now I'm not talking about getting free games here, although the public mistakenly perceives that as the sole purpose of hackers. It is not. It may be a small motivating force and the impact is undeniably enormous, but believe or not, hackers do what they do for deeper reasons. They are not here for the freeloaders. Their work does open the door to piracy, the negative consequences of which are constantly portrayed in the media, but hackers themselves do not profit from piracy.

For some hackers, their reward is notoriety. There may be those out there that honestly want to rally against corporate greed. But let's lay out the truth -- the simple and greatest motivation for hacking is simply the challenge and experience they get from cracking these seemingly unhackable systems. These accomplishments may translate into real jobs with the very same game companies they've "rebelled" against.

Hackers (a broad term I'll use to include homebrew programmers) provide an unheralded service to game companies that isn't readily nor officially recognized. They are the world's ultimate beta-testers, bug-finders, innovators, and super computer programmers that normal and legal avenues of talent search will not find. Corporate job head hunters can't post hacking skills in their job descriptions, but they sure can scour the internet (and essentially the world) for the 1 or 5th percentile of super intelligent programming geniuses and recruit them for work at Sony, MS, or Nintendo.

The ugly truth is that hackers have advanced the game industry. For all the damages they've done, they have repaid it by dragging game corporations into the digital age. Where would downloadable games and DLC be, without the homebrew and emulation scene? Where will voice chat, friends lists, and all those other features you've grown to love on Xbox LIVE be without the hackers? Save states were a common feature on emulators long before PSP finally implemented their version in a recent firmware update.

Does Sony have a right to take away features from PS3? Some may say yes -- a necessary evil to combat piracy. Low game sales kills your favorite game studios and independents. Microsoft regularly takes out the ban hammer instead of stripping any functionality though. It is certainly within each corporation's power to protect themselves however they see fit, but morally it is a gray area and may be a legal issue in of itself, one that likely will never be challenged in the court of law in a civil action suit, but does damage their credibility with consumers. Will taking out Linux work? No. What they have done is issue a challenge to hackers. Any everybody loves a challenge!

http://www.ps3informer.com/playstati...ers-012335.php ...

Six months ago, Sony launched the PSP Go in a desperate attempt to reboot the PSP brand. The sky is still blue. The grass is still green. The PSP still lags behind the Nintendo DS. Even in Japan, where the PSP has traditionally seen a great deal of success, the PSP Go has struggled.

Enterbrain(parent company of Famitsu) CEO Hirokazu Hamamura recently spoke about the PSP's performance in a marketing seminar. Though he has high hopes for the upcoming Monster Hunter 3, he seemed pretty cynical of the PSP. Hamamura said the PSP was destined to be a platform that would only be viable in Japan.

Hamamura was particularly down on the PSP Go. He said that the revision was worse than the Bandai-manufactured WonderSwan. Hamamura said the system's cramped design scheme made it hard to play games, especially the popular Monster Hunter games.

Hamamura predicted that Monster Hunter 3 would be the best selling PSP game of all time, and expects the game to sell 5 million copies over its lifetime.

Many analysts are predicting that Sony will announce a successor to the PSP at the upcoming E3 expo in June.

http://www.ps3center.net/news/4453/e...he-wonderswan/ ...