Though already open for early registrants, as of this week Microsoft has unbarred the floodgates for Windows Phone 7 app submissions from all developers. Full details and instructions can be found at the official App Hub, but if you're just curious about the experience overall, WP7 dev Adam Nathan -- who's reportedly submitted 30 through the system already -- outlines what he sees is the good, bad, and ugly of the process (literally). Face it, if you ever want to see your app on the Venue Pro, this is the gateway you must pass.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/05/w...-for-everyone/ ...

Apple is warning iPhone users that the daylight savings time glitch that plagued Europe affects US iPhones too, meaning you'll wake up an hour late if you rely on the Clock app built into the device. Though Apple representatives say there's a permanent fix in the works, it's not due until iOS 4.2, so the company suggests you set a new alarm today if you want to rise on time. Since the bug apparently only affects certain repeating alarms, you can create a new one-time alarm (i.e. with the repeat option set to "never") instead, and the iPhone clock will take care of the rest. Don't be the gal or guy blaming your tardiness on failed technology, folks, when it's this easy to be able to point the finger at traffic, family, or spontaneous bouts of dance fever instead.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/06/p...orrow-morning/ ...

Mozilla has released Beta 2 of Firefox 4 for Mobile. Some notable improvements over the initial beta release include 'reduced memory usage, improved text rendering and a 60% install size reduction on Android (from around 43 MB to 17 MB).' Mozilla also makes mention that 'actions like panning and zooming are faster and smoother, and page load times are reduced from our previous beta. On Android 2.2, we're now around 25% faster on the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark than the stock browser.' A future beta release will enable GL acceleration, which should further improve the performance of the browser.

http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/11...er-and-Sleeker ...

While Microsoft does get points for innovation, Kinect for Xbox 360 isn't the first attempt to make gaming a hands-free affair. Decades before Microsoft would release its depth-sensing camera system, other companies tried to take the gamepad out of the gaming equation. PlayStation, Dreamcast, NES and Sega have all been there. These attempts varied in usefulness, ranging from somewhat functional to laughable and pointless, and from the forgettable to the downright infamous

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/1...es-of-the-Past ...

JavaScript has shed its image of being a limited language, tied to DOM manipulation in a browser; in recent years, new engines and frameworks have given JS a reputation as a language capable of bigger things. Mix this in with the new elements of HTML5, and you have the capacity to emulate a game console or other system, with full graphical output. This series of articles looks in detail at how an emulator is written in JavaScript, using the example of the Gameboy handheld: starting at the CPU, and (as of part 8) running a copy of Tetris

http://developers.slashdot.org/story...led-In-8-Parts ...

The week ending October 31 sees another PSP title topping the Japanese chart, as Namco's Monster Hunter echoing God Eater hits number one, but it's Nintendo's DS which is riding high in the hardware chart.

Konami's PES 2011 jumps straight at number two with its PS3 SKU, on a week which sees its FIFA rival drop out of the top twenty. Last week's number one, the 25th anniversary edition of Super Mario All-Stars, drops to third, just above Pokemon Black and White in fourth.

Nosing into the top ten on its release week is Xbox 360 exclusive Fable III, selling just over 20,000 copies. The 360 itself has dropped to eighth in the hardware table, below a mildly resurgent PSPgo.

Japanese software chart

This Week Last Week Title Sales this week Sales overall
New Entry 1 God Eater 263,150 263,150
New Entry 2 Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 (PS3) 215,257 215,257
1 3 Super Mario All-Stars (Wii) 119,485 427,240
2 4 Pokemon Black/White 68,686 4,311,998
New Entry 5 Golden Sun 46,516 46,516
5 6 Kirby's Epic Yarn 25,257 153,170
New Entry 7 Solar to Robo 21,915 21,915
New Entry 8 Fable III 20,025 20,025
3 9 Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 (PS3) 19,090 82,765
10 10 Wii Party (Wii) 17,337 1,155,964
Japanese hardware chart, with weekly units sold.

PSP 38,874
DSi LL 32,137
PS3 28,255
DSi 23,614
Wii 12,710
DS Lite 3,375
PSP go 3,031
Xbox 360 2,669
PS2 1,400

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...hardware-chart ...

GameStop believes that discovering new games and digital content on the home consoles is just as hard as finding entertainment on Apple's notoriously difficult to navigate App Store.

Speaking at the London Games Conference last night, Chris Petrovic, head of the retailers digital business, said that GameStop wants to help market and sell digital games by smaller developers just as much as it does triple-A console and PC games.

"One of the key points that can't be underestimated is the increasing challenge of discovery," he said. "If you start off with presumptions on the percentage of consoles that are connected, are they as high as everybody would want them to be? No. The percentage of people that have purchased for their console games downloadable content for XBLA or PSN games is very low. It's barely above ten per cent.

"Discovery, much like in the Apple App Store, is as bad - if not worse - in the console environment because you've got such a limited form factor to work with.

"Somebody like us, where we have users coming in wanting to buy the disc, we can scan that disc and tell them the five or ten pieces of add-on content available. Or even better, we can work with publishers who are producing PSN or XBLA games and have a section in our store to highlight those - that's a win for everybody.

"It's helps discovery, it helps with monetisation at the point of purchase and consumers are getting what they want when they want it. The proliferation of digital will just lead to challenges in the marketing side," he added.

GameStop has more influence with consumers, said Petrovic, and more marketing opportunities than developers, who struggle to advertise their product in a crowded market.

"We've had the anecdotes up and down from XBLA and PSN developers who get that sacred shelf space of promotion, that front button, and their revenue goes through the roof for one or two weeks that they're in rotation, but as soon as they get off that it plummets.

"They don't have the wherewithal because they're really small shops, to be able to put marketing dollars towards many other channels.

"That's opened our eyes to think about creative ways to be that marketing partner apart from just marketing triple-A titles. To be able to serve well that long tail of game developers that have just as good quality games but don't have $50 million to spend on marketing. And coming up with creative ways to leverage our relationship with the consumer and our physical space to be able to give prominence to those games,"said Petrovic.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...s-on-app-store ...

If you want to buy Kinect next week you ought to consider queueing - three separate shops have told Eurogamer stock will be tight.

Microsoft's initial shipments will be limited, and the word is that shelf refills will happen in December.

Zavvi told us "Kinect is not in full supply at the moment", but reassured that "we are working closely with Microsoft to ensure a full allocation to satisfy our customer demand".

"It looks like stock could prove a little tight for launch," HMV echoed, "but that's partly because of the huge demand we've seen on pre-order and, of course, there's a world-wide launch to cater to as well as various bundle offers."

ShopTo confirmed that "initial stock will be limited and/or tight".

Microsoft has likened the demand for Kinect to the demand for a new console. The maker reckons five million Kinect cameras will be sold to the world by the end of 2010. Such claims wouldn't be made without the knowledge that manufacturing could meet those targets, surely.

"We are getting daily and weekly updates from Microsoft regarding when further stock will be made available to us so that we maximise on the potential of Kinect," Zavvi informed us. "Kinect is pre-ordering very well for us, and we are fully supportive of Microsoft's marketing campaign."

HMV promised to "definitely have some units for when the product goes live in-store". "We're also very confident that there'll be regular drops throughout the run-up to Christmas so that no consumers miss out."

And low stock can often be a blessing in disguise, the shop with the dog and a grammar phone added: "Obviously you always want more to sell, but it's also a nice problem to have in that any occasional shortages may also help to fuel people's desire to own one, thus supporting the long-term appeal of the product."

Could Microsoft be holding back supply on purpose?

ShopTo's evidently under the cosh, and is trying to "fulfil all orders of Kinect (solus)" but can't guarantee release-date delivery for any orders placed after the end of September. That's because of "high demand". However, "plenty" of the 4GB Xbox 360 S plus Kinect bundles are still available there.

Kinect launches across the UK on 10th November. GAME is the official UK launch partner and will open a combined 450 Game and Gamestation shops across the country at midnight the night before. The main event will be held at Oxford Street's GAME store in London. Mystery special guests are promised.

Neither GAME nor Microsoft responded to request for comment. Can't imagine they're busy.

The Kinect camera comes with a copy of Kinect Adventures and costs £130. The Kinect 4GB Xbox 360 S bundle costs £250.

Kinect launched in the US on 4th November -

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...stock-is-tight ...

DICE, the studio behind the multiplayer portion of the recently released Afghanistan shooter Medal of Honor, reckons reviews were affected by the controversy surrounding the game's setting.

Medal of Honor hit the headlines for being set in Afghanistan, touching on fresh in the memory battles, and allowing gamers to play as the Taliban in multiplayer - the faction was eventually changed to Opposing Force.

"The controversy did affect some reviews," DICE veteran Patrick Liu told Eurogamer.

"It stirs a lot of feelings, just the setting. And that does affect people's judgement. But otherwise, this is a reboot of a franchise. It's an investment for EA as a company. We need to build upon what we have achieved so far and improve and build up the franchise again from scratch, basically.

"In that sense, I think we're off to a very good start."

Liu's view tallies with EA's. This week the company announced two million units had been sold to consumers since launch.

The news followed an admission from Patrick Soderlund, the EA executive in charge of EA's shooters and driving games, that Medal of Honor "didn't meet quality expectations".

"In order to be successful in that space, we're going to have to have a game that is really, really strong," Soderlund said.

"Medal of Honor is to some extent judged harsher than it should be. The game is better than today's reviews are indicating."

Eurogamer awarded Medal of Honor 8/10 upon its release, and it's currently sitting on a 75/100 Metacritic review score average, but critics argued the game's "lukewarm" review scores failed to match up to those traditionally gained by Activision's Call of Duty series – a franchise EA's shooter is pitched squarely against.

Liu said another factor that played into Medal of Honor's supposed lukewarm reception was the competition.

"It's partly because we're in a very competitive genre," he explained. "We're also competing with ourselves. Obviously we're competing with Call of Duty. It's a very tricky situation to be squeezed in between those giants.

"Either the reviews are favourable, or they're not. There's nothing in between. It's polarised opinion about the game."

How did DICE feel about competing with its own Battlefield series?

" It can feel awkward sometimes," Liu admitted.

Whatever the case, EA confirmed this week that the game was successful enough to warrant a sequel, turning thoughts to the future.

While, according to Liu, "plans aren't set yet" for a MOH sequel, DICE is in the envious position of being able to pick and choose which game it creates next alongside Battlefield 3.

"Both yes and no," Liu replied when asked if DICE would like to work on MOH again.

"It would be cool to continue to develop the franchise. At the same time we have a lot of exciting stuff going on in DICE as well that we have been working on in parallel.

"I'm in a very good situation in that sense. I could pick and choose. It's a win win situation."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...fected-reviews ...