A group of hackers known simply as Anonymous has claimed to be planning and perpetrating a series of hacking attacks on Sony in support of two of the hackers implicated in the PS3 jalibreaking furore.
Action, the group says, will be taken in response to the company's continued legal pursuit of George 'Geohot' Hotz and Alexander Egorenkov, or Graf_Chokolo.
Anonymous is a collection of hackers with an anti-corporate agenda and a track-record of successfully disruptive tactics. Previously, the group has claimed responsibility for denial of service (DOS) attacks on Mastercard and Amazon for their compliance with US government demands to stop doing business with Wikileaks.
You have victimised your customers merely for possessing and sharing information, and continue to target every person who seeks this information.

Anonymous

The group also claims to have brought down the website of the right wing fundamentalist Christian group the Westboro Baptist Church and infiltrated the email system of security firm HBGary.
A statement issued as a press release on the group's website announces the group's intentions to make Sony the next target.
"Congratulations, Sony," reads the announcement. "You have now received the undivided attention of Anonymous. Your recent legal action against our fellow hackers, GeoHot and Graf_Chokolo, has not only alarmed us, it has been deemed wholly unforgivable.
"You have abused the judicial system in an attempt to censor information on how your products work. You have victimised your customers merely for possessing and sharing information, and continue to target every person who seeks this information.
"In doing so, you have violated the privacy of thousands. This is the information they were willing to teach to the world for free. The very same information which you wish to suppress for the sake of corporate greed and the complete control of users."
As damning as the group's statement is, there also appears to be some unrest in its ranks in respect to the correct course of action. Last month, a splinter group claiming to be made up of former Anonymous members contacted Forbes and Gawker, calling themselves Backtrace Security.
That group claims that the current members of Anonymous have lost sight of the original mission statement for the group, being sidelined into 'hactivism' instead of playful mischief. As a result, Backtrace Security has threatened to release the details of several anonymous members.
The group also handed over logs from a private IRC channel known as #HQ which belongs to Anonymous, showing the group's plans to infiltrate HBGary as well as other evidence of criminal activities, information certain to be of interest to US authorities.
"The bastards are becoming arrogant sociopaths," Backtrace Security member A5h3r4 told Gawker. "Acting first, not thinking of the consequences. They're recruiting children. I am a pretty far left person - I believe in privacy and free expression, but Anonymous is a vigilante group now. A mob without conscience. And I worry they will radicalise even more. In short, I believe they're on their way to becoming a genuine threat."
Whether the group's efforts will have any bearing on the Sony case remains to be seen, but the platform holder is already heavily invested in the case, which Hotz is contesting. No public evidence of a successful attack on Sony has yet to come to light.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...attack-on-sony


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Google has begun to censure companies over unauthorised changes to the Android operating system, as well as the formation of partnerships without the company's involvement.
According to a Bloomberg report companies will now need prior approval from Google's Andy Rubin in order to gain early access to software updates.
The changes in the working relationship were described by major hardware partners such as LG, Toshiba, Samsung, and Facebook - which is working on its own device. Bloomberg's sources suggest that some companies have already made legal attempts to prevent Google's interference.
Although Android remains open source, and therefore free to use by any company, the advance access to features and updates is now being used as a means to bring major partners into line. Especially given Android's now 31 per cent share of the market.
Google's move is apparently due to concern that its market is beginning to fragment, with some hardware manufacturer's continuing to use outdated versions of the operating system - creating compatiblitily issues for developers and confusion amongst customers.
As a result Google has begun to insert "non-fragmentation clauses" into its contracts, ensuring that it has the final word on how the operating system is used and customised - as well as any additional partnerships between companies.
Smaller firms complain that Google is purposefully delaying the release of new code to the public, making it harder for them to compete.
"The premise of a true open software platform may be where Android started, but it's not where Android is going," Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop is quoted as saying.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-android-deals
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EA's Crysis 2 is No.1 again but Zumba Fitness is this week’s star as it rockets to second place following Wii release

505 Games’ Zumba Fitness has shot up the charts this week just one place behind EA’s Crysis 2 which holds on to No.1.
The second top spot for Crysis 2 represents EA’s sixth No.1 of the year following other titles at the top such as FIFA 11 and Dragon Age II.

But 505 Games saw the strongest growth this week with sales of Zumba Fitness jumping 3,148 per cent week-on-week following the release of the fitness game on Wii. It was released on Xbox 360 in late 2010 and PS3 Move earlier this year.
Zumba Fitness is also 505 Games’ highest ever entry in the chart, with previous bests including Naughty Bear and Cooking Mama at No.5.
Other new releases from EA include Shift 2 Unleashed which debuted at No.4 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 which reaches No.6. Meanwhile, THQ’s new WWE All Stars brawler also breaks into the Top Ten at No.7.
Nintendo’s Pokémon White and Black dropped to No.9 and No.13 respectively, while its evergreen seller Art Academy rose from No.33 to No.9 following a sales increase of 208 per cent.
Here’s the Gfk Chart-Track Top Ten:
1. Crysis 2 (EA)
2. Zumba Fitness (505 Games)
3. LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (Activision/LucasArts)
4. Shift 2 Unleashed (EA)
5. Homefront (THQ)
6. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 (EA)
7. WWE All Stars (THQ)
8. FIFA 11 (EA)
9. Pokémon White (Nintendo)
10. Art Academy (Nintendo)
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/43800/UK-C...2-still-on-top
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X-Factor stars to promote Black and White in new TV campaign

Nintendo has signed a deal with One Direction which will see the popular boy band feature in a TV campaign for Pokemon Black and Pokemon White.
The X-Factor finalists will also be acting as Pokemon ‘brand ambassadors’ - appearing at a series of special events and meeting fans.

The first TV ad to feature the band will air on Monday, April 11th, and they made their first public appearance on behalf of the brand at the games’ official launch in London’s Leicester Square.
The tie-up continues Nintendo’s strong association with X-Factor, the manufacturer has previously enlisted stars such as Olly Murs, JLS, Alexandra Burke and Jedward for promotional duties.
The band’s Liam Payne claimed they are all huge fans of the franchise: “Zayn and I played it loads when we were younger, but Harry had never really played before we introduced him to it. We all started playing the new version during rehearsal breaks whilst on tour and now we can’t put our consoles down.”
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/43801/Nint...-new-Direction
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Crysis 2 holds the lead on this week's official UK Xbox 360 Chart following its successful debut next week.

Also holding its ground is Homefront, which finishes the week in second place ahead of new entry Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed.




Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars drops one spot to No.4, while new releases Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters and WWE All Stars enter at No.5 and No.6 respectively.

FIFA 11 spends its 27th week on the chart at No.7, while Fight Night Champion staggers from No.6 to No.8.

Meanwhile, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood sits at No.9 and Dragon Age 2 tumbles six places to No.10.

Here's the full Xbox 360 Top Ten chart for the week ending April 2:

• 1. Crysis 2 (EA)
  2. Homefront (THQ)
  3. Shift 2: Unleashed (EA)
  4. Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars (LucasArts)
  5. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11: The Masters (EA)
  6. WWE All Stars (THQ)
  7. FIFA 11 (EA Sports)
  8. Fight Night Champion (EA)
  9. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
  10. Dragon Age 2 (EA)

Check out the official UK All Formats games chart here.
Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2011 UKIE Ltd

[ Source: UKIE ]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

7 and 10.1-inch Android 3.0 tablets due soon

The Acer Aspire Iconia Tab A100 has appeared for pre-order on Amazon.co.uk priced at £299.99.
Eagle eyed Netbook News spotted the new Acer 7-inch tablet appearing on the Amazon UK sitepriced a penny under £300 with free UK delivery and marked for release on the 20th of April.
The Nvidia Tegra 250 powered tablet is armed with a dual core ARM Cortex A9 CPU, 512KB of RAM, 8GB of solid state storage, Bluetooth, 802.11n wireless and the latest Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system. The tablet also has a HDMI output.
The larger 10.1-inch Acer Aspire Iconia Tab A500 is also on Amazon for pre-order priced at £449.99. The A500 has the same Android 3.0 Honeycomb, Bluetooth and Wireless but has double the RAM at 1GB and four times the storage, 32GB.
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/36079...r-at-Amazon-UK
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New milestone for DS games following record film figures; Merchandise revealed

Pokémon Black and White have sold 3m copies in the US and Europe within their first two weeks on sale.
By mid-March the two new Nintendo DS games had sold 1m copies in Europe alone. They have become the fastest-selling games in the series, bringing Europe’s total install base for Pokémon titles up past 35m units.

The news comes as The Pokémon Company enters into an agreement with Universal Pictures to distribute the latest Pokémon DVD, Zoroark: Master of Illusions, across Europe in late spring.
France Télévisions Distribution and Magna Home Entertainment will distribute the French and Australian versions of the film respectively, which has already received record ratings with 500,000 viewers on French TV network Gulli. In Spain it was one of the most viewed programmes across all channels.
In September Bandai Europe will launch a new Pokémon toy range to tie in with the upcoming TV series. A trading card game also based on the Pokémon Black and White games will arrive this month in Europe, as well as an online version of the game.



The Pokémon Black and White animated TV series has already attracted more than 600,000 viewers aged four to ten years old in France, over 250,000 in Italy and 123,000 in the Netherlands. It launches across all other European territories later this year.
“The global buzz created by Pokémon’s record-breaking video games, Pokémon Black and White, and brand new animation inspired by the new Unova region is truly remarkable,” said The Pokémon Company’s director of consumer marketing J.C. Smith.
“There’s more excitement to come and we look forward to working with existing and new partners to provide superior entertainment to our millions of fans around the world.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/43794/Pokm...e-hit-3m-sales
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News via http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php...dpost&p=945026

Dungeon Master was the first mouse driven 3d first person RPG -- it created the genre that is popular today. Eye of the Beholder was directly (and they had were proud of it) a clone (for the PC, while DM/CSB were originally for Atari ST and Amiga, and later PC.)



These run full screen or windowed on Pandora and, with the touchscreen acting as mouse (plus pandora specific keybindings to make it more convenient.)

The two games are included in the package; other dungeon packs can be gotten from around the net.

The history of CSB4Win project is the author disassembled the ST version, then rewrite it line by line directly to C, and then refactored for years to turn it into a piece of code you could follow; he also extended it, to allow the engine more space to work in, do video recording for speedruns, and so on. Once the file format of the dungeons was cracked open, editors appeared and you can get many dozen of new dungeons to play through, including some all new game 'total conversions'; theres really a lot to chew on here!

The pandora port was done by a fine lad over in the dmweb forum, and he's worked very hard on this .. had to rewrite the audio routines and he's been busting bugs in the main engine and so on. I didn't do anything here beyond moral support, so all kudos are to him
Get it here:
http://www.diamondsword.de/csb/csbwin-11.059rc1.pnd

Feel free to pop it into dl.openhandhelds, but it may not be appropriate for app-store.

Legal: The original game developers (FTL) of DM/CSB have very kindly turned their eye for projects like this; they've emailed that distributing files for free and fan service is okay, but they aren't officially allowed to say anything, nor is anythign commercial anywhere near permitted. Hence, the original games are in this package, but its a little grey. Head over to the DMWeb site to nab dozens of other dungeon packs you can drop into the appdata to enable. (Those are not included, since explicit licensing from the dungeon creator, or if they re-used artwork etc, is unknown, so that wouldn't be kocher to include in the package.)

Enjoy.. this is one of the greats
jeff. ...

Lavalit have released a new SVN build of Openbor for the Dreamcast, Wii, Wiz, GP2X, Dingoo, PC, Linux and PSP

OpenBOR
----------------------
OpenBOR is a continuation of the Beats Of Rage 2D game engine, which was originally
created by the wonderful folks over at http://www.senileteam.com.

History
----------------------
In 2004, Senile Team released Beats of Rage, a free beat-'em-up for DOS inspired
by SEGA's Streets of Rage series and using sprites from SNK Playmore's King of
Fighters series. The game spread only by word of mouth, but it nonetheless
amassed popularity very quickly. Senile Team soon released an edit pack allowing
anyone interested to create a mod for the BOR engine.
In 2005, Kirby2000 asked Senile Team to open the source code to BOR. They
agreed, and OpenBOR was born. Development on the engine was continued by the
community, and still is to this day.


Heres whats new:

r3327 | damon_caskey | 2011-04-01 17:20:53 -0400 (Fri, 01 Apr 2011) | 1 line
Changed paths:
M /engine/openbor.h
M /engine/version.h
Missed s_range in previous commit.

Download Here ...