Leading social network set to feed into Microsoft’s search engine
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has confirmed that the social networking site will feed user data into Bing search engines.
The move replicates Twitter’s recent announcement that public Tweets are now indexed on Microsoft’s bourgeoning search engine.
Facebook will soon give its users the option to switch is private, friends-only news feed into a wholly public feed, that the likes of Bing – and perhaps Google – can emulate.
“We should have our public updates integrated into a Bing beta within a couple of months,” Sandberg told The Telegraph.
“Unlike Twitter’s data stream, which is already totally public, we have to be very careful about making sure the correct data is streamed.”

Sandberg confirmed that Microsoft would not be paying Facebook for access to its feeds – of which Sandberg says receives over 45 million user-updates each day. It is still not known if Twitter is taking earnings from Microsoft or Google for its search deals.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/32589...r-in-Bing-deal ...

ELSPA has announced that following consultation with the UK's Department for Health, Wii Fit Plus will become the first videogame to be allowed to use the National Health Service's Change4Life campaign logo in its advertising.

The move marks a significant turnaround since March this year, when an advertising campaign run under the Change4Life banner depicted a child playing videogame with the slogan: "Risk an early death, just do nothing."

The campaign caused a significant uproar in the games industry, but despite numerous complaints by key industry figures to the Advertising Standards Authority, it was allowed to continue.

But the turnaround since then has come about, says ELSPA's director general Mike Rawlinson, from a lengthy process of consultation.

"We are thrilled that active videogames are finally being recognised by the Government for contributing to a healthy, balanced lifestyle," he said. "Since the negative portrayal of videogames in a Change4Life advertisement earlier this year, ELSPA worked with the Department of Health to gain proper recognition of the many benefits which active gaming can bring to an energetic lifestyle.

"Children and adults across the UK already know that dancing, jumping or even boxing within an active videogame have real exercise benefits. We are encouraged by this positive step to gain wider recognition of the health benefits that videogames can offer to individuals, families and communities alike."

Wii Fit Plus is set for release in the UK this Friday.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...me-endorsement ...

Mobile analyst group warns that net operators are not yet ready for the spike
Mobile data traffic accessed via mobile phones is set to skyrocket 2500 per cent by 2012, experts warn.
Mobile analyst firm Informa says that the huge increase in people accessing the internet via mobile phones could cause sizable capacity and logistic problems for network providers.
According to a BBC report, Informa warned that a “traffic jam” is imminent unless network providers adapt to the expected increase in mobile net use.
Meanwhile, Informa warned that the jump in traffic will not be proportionate to the jump in company revenues,
"Where operators are experiencing exploding data traffic, revenues are not following them," the group said. "Revenues from data are increasing much slower than traffic."

An Informa analyst added that the next-generation mobile networks currently do not have the hardware that can handle high data rates, but many are expected to by late 2010.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/32584...affic-expected ...

Activision's forthcoming shooter sequel Modern Warfare 2 is top of the most anticipated list of releases for November, heading both the total users and registered users rankings.

The game, which Activision has previously suggested will be the biggest entertainment release of 2009, was way ahead of its rivals in the latest edition GamesRetail.biz, a free industry newsletter aimed at the retail and publishing communities.

In the total users list Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 for the Wii placed second, ahead of new IP from Electronic Arts in the form of Bioware's Dragon Age: Origins - those two ahead of two more sequels in Left 4 Dead 2 and Assassin's Creed 2.

Meanwhile the ranking for the registered Eurogamer users - a list which represents the slightly more dedicated core user group - put Modern Warfare at the top ahead of Dragon Age: Origins in second place, with Assassin's Creed and Left 4 Dead 2 taking third and fourth places respectively.

To sign up to receive GamesRetail.biz every Monday, GamesIndustry.biz Network members can sign up on the official registration page. Anybody working in the videogames business may register with a valid industry email address on the Network sign-up page.

The full top ten lists from this week's edition are as follows:

Total User Ranking

1. Modern Warfare 2
2. Pro Evolution Soccer 2010
3. Dragon Age: Origins
4. Left 4 Dead 2
5. Assassin's Creed 2
6. F1 2009
7. Ghostbusters
8. LittleBigPlanet
9. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
10. LEGO Indiana Jones 2
Registered Eurogamers Ranking

1. Modern Warfare 2
2. Dragon Age: Origins
3. Assassin's Creed 2
4. Left 4 Dead 2
5. Ghostbusters
6. Pro Evolution Soccer 2010
7. LittleBigPlanet
8. Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines
9. Resident Evil DC
10. Muramasa Demon Blade

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...icipation-list ...

Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 has beat Microsoft's Forza Motorsport 3 to the top of the all formats charts in the UK.

The PlayStation 3 accounted for 66 per cent of sales, with the Xbox 360 taking 32 per cent and the PC 2 per cent of Konami's football title. First week sales for PES were 39 per cent below the debut of the 2009 game.

With Forza at number two, EA's FIFA 10 drops to three, and THQ's latest WWE Smackdown Vs RAW 2010 enters at five. Sony's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves falls to number six with sales down 53 per cent.

Take-Two's new Gearbox title Borderlands enters the charts at number seven while Sony's EyePet misses out on the top ten, entering the charts at 18.

The GfK Chart-Track top ten follows:

01 Pro Evolution Soccer 2010
02 Forza Motorsport 3
03 FIFA 10
04 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
05 WWE Smackdown Vs RAW 2010
06 Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
07 Borderlands
08 Wii Sports Resort
09 Need for Speed Shift
10 Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-uk-number-one ...

Netflix is to bring its film streaming rental service to PlayStation 3 from next month following its securing of a deal with Sony.

The US service, which makes thousands of films and TV episodes available for subscribers to stream directly to their TVs, has been available on the Xbox 360 for over a year.

As its exclusivity period with the console has been nearing an end however, Netflix has voiced its intention to bring the service to other platforms, with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings saying last month that it aims to be on all the games consoles, Blu-ray players and internet TVs.

The Sony deal will mean that any US Netflix member will be able to stream content via a PlayStation 3 at no extra cost. The technology will be enabled by an instant streaming Blu-ray disc that will be sent free to members.

"The PlayStation 3 system has always been about more than just gaming, and it will soon be the only platform in the industry to offer consumers such a variety of convenient options for enjoying movies and TV shows," said Jack Tretton, president of SCEA.

"Whether you want to watch content on Blu-ray disc and DVD, download it from the PlayStation Network’s video delivery service, or stream videos instantly from Netflix, the PS3 system is the only solution that offers it all."

"As instantly watching movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix becomes an increasingly popular way to enjoy the Netflix service, our goal is to rapidly expand the devices that stream to our members," added Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.

"As a leading game console and Blu-ray disc player, bringing Netflix to the PS3 system is a real win for both Netflix members and PS3 system owners."

According to Microsoft figures, over one million Xbox 360 users downloaded and activated Netflix in its first three months of availability and have watched over 1.5 billion minutes of of video since it launched in November last year.

The PlayStation 3's install base is nearly nine million in the US, while Netflix had 11.1 million subscribers as of September 30.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...s3-in-november ...

PSPKVM 0.5.4 (final) is now officially released. This is release incorporates a host of enhancements and bugfixes trialled in the recent set of test builds and aimed at increasing useability, improving multilingual support, easing doing text input and generally smoothing out the user interface.

See the downloads page on SourceForge at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pspkvm/files/ -- several package versions are available for new and existing users.

The complete changelog is now a bit long for a news post and is available with the build packages. In summary, however, highlights relative to release 0.5.3 are:

* an improved backend typeface system supporting much, much larger TrueType fonts (tested successfully with 18 MB of font files attached), and supporting italic, bold, and italic-bold faces across all system faces, and adding support for a fallback font slot appropriate for massive pan-Unicode and Han character fonts. See demonstration captures in the wiki at http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/psp...lDemonstration
* a new Danzeff-style virtual keyboard
* extensive multilingual support (most if not all languages using Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts supported) added to the existing semichordal virtual keyboard
* speed enhancements and improved support for use in large text panes for all remaining virtual keyboards, including the Chinese-input-supporting AWF virtual board--a floating 'smart placement' system overlays the boards over the text, but moves them as you type so you can't type under them
* modifications to event handling in all virtual keyboards greatly streamlining GUI mechanics--you can now confirm and cancel text entry with far fewer keystrokes then previously
* fixes to streaming multimedia support
* a folder system in the Application Management System, allowing the convenient management of large numbers of installed applications
* an in-GUI configuration system now supporting the configuration of a number of features and subsystems (font system, virtual keyboard setup) previously only adjustable in the .ini
* the ability to switch the X/O key use to 'Western'-style X-for-accept system wide
* networking improvements allowing easier recovery in difficult connection situations
* additions to the built-in font supporting most Cyrillic characters and common typographic symbols ('typesetters' quotes, em-dashes, etc.)

Many thanks from the development team to all who tested and reported on the test builds.

(And onward to 0.5.5.)

--

Note that there is currently no OFW-compatible (1.5 kernel) release. Users interested in one please contact us via contact methods offered at http://pspkvm.org -- we have had difficulty testing these. ...

News/release from Fillius

...

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