PC World reports that Google has acquired a popular iPhone application called reMail that provides 'lightning fast' full-text search of your Gmail and IMAP e-mail accounts. The app downloads copies of all your e-mail which can then be searched with various Boolean options. reMail has only been in the application store for about six months — with a free version limited to one Gmail account and a premium version which can connect to multiple accounts. 'Google and reMail have decided to discontinue reMail's iPhone application, and we have removed it from the App Store,' writes company founder Gabor Cselle, who will be returning to Google as a Product Manager on the Gmail team. Google isn't saying what the fate of reMail might be. Some are suggesting reMail could be integrated into Gmail search or live on in some form as a part of Android, Google's mobile platform. Another possibility is that Google may have snapped up reMail just to kill it, not because reMail was a competitor to anything Google had, but because reMail made the iPhone better or the acquisition may have more to do with keeping good search technology away from the competition, as opposed to an attempt to undercut the iPhone. 'Perhaps Google is just planning to buy up all the iPhone developers, one at a time, until Android is the only game in town,' writes Bill Ray at the Register.

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/02...h-App-Kills-It ...

How good — or bad — are fake iPhones? PC Pro blogger Steve Cassidy has a friend who paid £25 ($40) for an 'iPhone' in a bar, and he's got the photos and full lowdown of what's inside this not-so smartphone. The phone looks convincing enough from the outside, with a genuine-looking backplate, but things start to go wrong when you switch it on. What's a "Java" and "WLAN" App button doing on the screen? And how about that Internet Explorer icon? It's like you're handling an artefact from an alternate history, dropped in via a spacetime wormhole. It has dual SIM handling, too, and came with a bizarre auxiliary battery festooned with warnings about not pressing a button mounted on the front of the top-up device.

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/0...Phone-In-a-Bar ...

We hear lots about the issues facing violent games in Australia, but the anti-games bandwagon is gathering pace closer to home — in Switzerland, to be precise. The Swiss government is gearing up to consider a total ban on mature games in the country.

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/0...lent-Games-Ban ...

The PSP has continued to top the Japanese hardware chart this week, while Namco Bandai's God Eater has remained atop the software chart for a second week.

God Eater sales dropped off by 63 per cent on last week, but it still sold in excess of 100,000 copies - enough to put it ahead of the second-placed game, Dragon Quest VI, which sold almost 80,000 units throughout the week.

In terms of hardware, positions were unchanged from last week with sales remaining largely consistent as well.

The software chart saw some changes though, with four new entries into the top ten.

Two Konami titles - Prince of Tennis and Quiz Magic Academy - charted at number four and six respectively, while Nintendo's Zangeki no Reginkleiv entered at number nine.

Spike's Sacred 2: Fallen Angel on PS3 was the final new entry, at number ten.

The full software chart is as follows:

01 God Eater (PSP)
02 Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reviere (DS)
03 New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
04 Prince of Tennis: Prince of School Festival - More Sweet Edition (DS)
05 Friend Collection (DS)
06 Quiz Magic Academy DS: Futatsu no Jikuu Koku (DS)
07 Wii Fit Plus (Wii)
08 Star Ocean: The Last Hope - International (PS3)
09 Zangeki no Reginkleiv (Wii)
10 Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (PS3)

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

Retailers have spoken out on recent incentives by Electronic Arts and Sony to deter pre-owned sales by including content vouchers with new games that can only be redeemed once.

In the case of EA, it has begun offering downloadable content to users buying a new copy of a game, which those with a second-hand copy will need to buy separately - a move it has labelled "Project Ten Dollar". Mass Effect 2 was the first game to include a DLC code, and the company has said all of its games released in fiscal 2011 will follow suit.

However, Sony appears to be going one step further with reports stating that online play in the latest SOCOM game for PSP will be locked until users redeem a code online. Players with a second-hand copy will need to purchase a new code at a cost of $20.

According to Chipsworld MD Don McCabe, the only people that will be affected directly by these moves will be consumers, who will find the resale value of their games is suddenly much lower than they're used to.

"The person you're pissing off the most is the consumer," McCabe told GamesIndustry.biz. "This affects [them] directly - they pay the same amount of money and yet the resale value is much reduced. From a retailer's point of view, they'll just readjust [the price] bearing in mind you have to buy the voucher."

Furthermore, he said that EA is one of the publishers most likely to be benefiting at the moment from pre-owned sales, as consumers trade in their older instalments of franchises for the new, most current ones.

"They are effectively what I call a franchise software house in that they upgrade their titles; FIFA, Madden all of these are effectively the same title upgraded each year. And people trade in last year's for this year's. You go anywhere and you'll always find second hand copies of FIFA 07, 08, 09 - it's one of the ones we get the most of."

It's an opinion backed up by Marc Day, CEO of SwapGame, a site which offer new and pre-owned games, as well as rentals.

"EA's Project Ten Dollar move is aiming to stifle pre-owned games sales, but what they don't factor in is the damage this could have for them in relation to new sales," said Day.

"At SwapGame, the majority of customers who trade in for cash or credit do so to acquire new games they could otherwise not afford. Through trading in, we aim to help the customer make gaming more affordable, providing them with a way to buy new games.

"The move to DLC exclusive content is an interesting step, and this obviously provides the publisher with another revenue stream. This move will definitely make the game less valuable on the pre-owned market, so it will be sold cheaper, meaning customers will get less value when trading in."

Another downside is that retailers will become more wary of publishers using these methods and more reticent about stocking their products, said McCabe, since consumers will need to register their details with the publisher after buying a game from their shop.

"You've got to bear in mind that when you sell this product, if they insist on online registration, what they're doing is collecting your customer data.

"On one hand they might be trying to reduce pre-owned sales, on the other hand they might be collecting data so they can email that customer directly.

"From a retailer's point of view, you're always going to have that in mind. Why should you give your customers over to an organisation that's going to compete with you? You're going to be less likely to want to promote that game."

A more positive viewpoint on the move comes from Igor Cipolletta, MD of online retailer ShopTo.net - a site that doesn't offer trade-ins.

He points out that if publishers are unable to make sufficient profit from the current retail model they will, for their survival, look at alternatives.

"We as retailers have to convince the publishers that the retail sector is still a viable marketplace for them," he said.

"I think that us retailers have a duty to ensure that publishers can get back their development costs and a profit that can in part be ploughed into future projects, and obviously the second hand market is not one which directly appears to benefit the IP owners and publishers, who are therefore trialling new ways to secure profit.

"I suspect that many users will be averse to some of the current and future methods," he added. "But at some stage in the not-too-distant future, many publishers may have been forced out of business and with it [goes] the level and quality of releases.

"Gamers would still certainly rather have the physical product to show for their money, so if we are to avoid going down a download only method of software delivery, we all have our part to play to ensure the market flourishes.

"EA's fairly strong message seems to be, stop selling second hand games or soon we will be looking at a download-only selling methodology and therefore the retail sector will have little to no physical product to actually sell.

"Only time will tell how this is received by the gaming ...

Here's an update to the console sale shifts in Japan, listed below as follows:


Playstation Portable: 39,293
Nintendo Wii: 37,501
Nintendo DSi LL: 27,586
Playstation 3: 24,811
Nintendo DSi: 18,082
Nintendo DS Lite: 5,659
Xbox 360: 3,428
Playstation 2: 1,869
Playstation Portable Go: 1,394


The ranks stay the same as last week. Most in the list are down slightly in sales. Figures from Media Create. ...

via Gizmodo


The guys at 9to5Mac have put together a profile you can install on your iPhone using a corporate development kit that gives you an alphanumeric passcode lock—versus the standard 4-digit PIN-style lock.

The settings profile's easily removed if you don't like it, but make sure you don't lock yourself out of your phone by forgetting the passcode. Also, it's entirely at your own risk, you know, in case it does blow up your phone forever. ...

via Eurogamer


Yet more amazing internet detectives have uncovered an alternative camera mode for the recently released Lost in Nightmares DLC for Resident Evil 5.

In order to unlock the new camera mode, which frames the action in a similar fashion to the mansion-based originals, all you need to do is talk to the front door a few times until it says "?" instead of the usual investigation prompt (thanks Kotaku).

Lost in Nightmares is out now for PSN and Xbox Live and puts you in control of Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine in a puzzly, extended version of events leading up to one of Resident Evil 5's flashback cut-scenes.

We thought it was amazing, handing down a whopping 9/10 in this week's review.

Lost in Nightmares costs £3.99 / €4.99 on PSN or 400 Microsoft Points (£3.40 / €4.80) on Xbox Live. ...

via Eurogamer


Yet more amazing internet detectives have uncovered an alternative camera mode for the recently released Lost in Nightmares DLC for Resident Evil 5.

In order to unlock the new camera mode, which frames the action in a similar fashion to the mansion-based originals, all you need to do is talk to the front door a few times until it says "?" instead of the usual investigation prompt (thanks Kotaku).

Lost in Nightmares is out now for PSN and Xbox Live and puts you in control of Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine in a puzzly, extended version of events leading up to one of Resident Evil 5's flashback cut-scenes.

We thought it was amazing, handing down a whopping 9/10 in this week's review.

Lost in Nightmares costs £3.99 / €4.99 on PSN or 400 Microsoft Points (£3.40 / €4.80) on Xbox Live. ...