New documents suggest motion tech could be at the heart of the upcoming new model.
Mac Rumours reports on two Apple patent applications that indicate the tech giant has been wrestling with the problem of gesture control in a portable device, and specifically, the issues involved in gesturing to a handheld when the user itself is moving.

One patent outlines an idea where the iPhone can detect when a user is moving and automatically enlarge the UI accordingly, reducing the scope for error.


More interestingly, however, the patent diagrams seem to show a front camera on the iPhone/iPod Touch – something that isn’t present on either of the existing models.

Such a development would, in telephony terms, pave the way for video calling. But from a games perspective it could add a whole new dynamic to the current touch screen and accelerometer functions.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/33102...g-iPhone-thing ...

New documents suggest motion tech could be at the heart of the upcoming new model.
Mac Rumours reports on two Apple patent applications that indicate the tech giant has been wrestling with the problem of gesture control in a portable device, and specifically, the issues involved in gesturing to a handheld when the user itself is moving.

One patent outlines an idea where the iPhone can detect when a user is moving and automatically enlarge the UI accordingly, reducing the scope for error.


More interestingly, however, the patent diagrams seem to show a front camera on the iPhone/iPod Touch – something that isn’t present on either of the existing models.

Such a development would, in telephony terms, pave the way for video calling. But from a games perspective it could add a whole new dynamic to the current touch screen and accelerometer functions.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/33102...g-iPhone-thing ...

With the NPD group confirming that “Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars” sold an un-”GTA”-like 89,000 units between its March 17 launch and April 4, the question turns to gamers:
If you’re a “GTA” fan who has purchased games like “Grand Theft Auto IV,” but didn’t buy “Chinatown Wars,” why not?

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/...hinatown-wars/ ...

Few words can make a gaming reporter roll their eyes as easily as a publicist’s offer to “let me show you the Wii version.” So how did the Nintendo Wii version of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” look during a demo this week?
Transforming is, essentially, a super fighting move.
Activision promises that the Wii version of the coming-to-every-platform “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” won’t be a stinker.
For some gamers, that’s not been a safe bet. Since the Wii launch, many publishers have slapped together Wii editions of games that were conceived to best entertain and impress on higher-end systems like the Xbox 360 and PS3. Didn’t the Wii, the most popular system in the world, deserve its own special treatment?
To get around this problem, Activision has tapped Krome Studios, developers of the Wii version of “Star Wars The Force Unleashed” to make a from-the-ground-up Wii version of “Revenge of the Fallen.”
Here are some key differences I was shown during an in-person, controlled demo by Activision reps earlier this week.
* The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of “Revenge of the Fallen” let players pick Autobot and Decepticon campaigns. The Wii game puts players in one chronological adventure, controlling whichever Autobot or Decepticon is tied to each level.
* The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions allow players to transform at will, to fly or drive, then turn into a robot, smash an enemy, transform back and dash away. The levels in the Wii game are geared to one mode at a time: flying, driving or robot. Players move their Transformer with the nunchuk’s control stick and aim/shoot with the Wii remote.A player can transform in any of those missions, but only when their energy meter is full enough and only because they can use their transformations as special attacks. Transforming is, essentially, a super fighting move.
For example, in a Bumblebee robot mission set in a city swarmed by Deceptions, transforming Bumblebee caused him to go into car mode, spin out his tires and smash into enemies before reverting to robot.

In an on-rails flight mission featuring Starscream blitzing a fleet of aircraft carriers, the one-button transformation caused the Decepticon to switch into robot mode, aim at his enemies and allowed the player to point the Wii remote and shoot them down. (Flight control for Starscream when he was in plane mode was managed with tilts of the Wii remote.)
The co-op player controls a floating gizmo called the Remote Weapons System.
In a driving mission set in a tunnel in Shanghai, the transformation caused the player’s car Transformer to become a robot that can grind, “Tony Hawk“-style with whatever momentum he had from his driving, before reverting back to a car. The Transformer can shoot while in robot mode.
* The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the games are single-player adventures with separate online multiplayer modes. The Wii has campaign co-op and a two-robot horde-survival mode called Arena. Arena Mode is reminiscent, I was told (but not shown), of “Gears of Wars“‘ Horde mode. The campaign co-op is inspired by “Super Mario Galaxy.” As with Nintendo’s game, a second player can pick up a Wii remote and serve as support. The lead player controls the mission’s Transformer. The co-op player controls a floating gizmo called the Remote Weapons System. This small drone will float near the Transformer. The player controlling it can use it to shoot enemies, exchange energy with the lead player (who can give health energy back), or throw up a shield that can be re-positioned at different sides of the first player’s Transformer. An Activision rep said that the game’s difficulty will automatically be adjusted when the second player joins and dropped when they leave, simply by tweaking values related to damage and health.
The Wii game will also have Achievement/Trophy-like “Feats” and even some missions that show action not seen in the upcoming movie.
The Wii game is indisputably graphically inferior to the Xbox 360 and PS3 games, but has been designed to be something different. That’s what it needs, right?

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/...axy-and-gears/ ...

In a story I filed today for MTVNews.com about the sales of “Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars,” A GameStop spokesman expressed a positive read on the performance of Rockstar’s superbly-reviewed but seemingly low-selling game:
“‘GTA: Chinatown Wars’ is exceeding our expectations and illustrating the power of the franchise on a new platform,” GameStop spokesman Chris Olivera said in an e-mail to MTV News. “We’ve seen a solid lift in sales of ‘Chinatown Wars’ following the launch of the DSi and believe that the product will continue to enjoy a long life at our stores as the buzz around the new handheld gaming experience continues to grow.” Nintendo’s DSi model of the DS platform was released a day after NPD’s sales-tracking window for March.

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/...-expectations/ ...

Nintendo won’t reveal what its sales expectations were for “Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars,” but the company claims the game has a bright future.
***
Nintendo took the unusual step today of making representatives available to discuss the sales of a third-party game. The occasion was the widely-covered seeming flop of “Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars,” the highly-rated “GTA” debut on Nintendo’s DS that sold just 89,000 copies in the U.S. in its first 18 days of sales.
The game’s publisher and retail chain GameStop already told me earlier today that there’s no reason to count the game out yet. Later in the afternoon, Nintendo said the game thing.
“‘Chinatown Wars’ is performing in line with AAA titles that have come to our platform like ‘Spore‘ or ‘Lego Star Wars,” Steve Singer, vice president of licensing and the man who manages third party relations for Nintendo of America, told me in a phone interview. “Those games went on to have very different life-to-date sales numbers.” A Nintendo rep pointed to sales of “Call of Duty 4” on the DS, which had sales of 36,000 units in its first month and went on to sell more than 500,000 copies.
Singer attributed the sales of “GTA” in the first month as “the result of having only a limited number of M-rated games on the platform.” The DS has only had seven.
But it is word of mouth that he believes will help the game in the long run. He expects the conversation around the game’s sales may be very different five months to a year from now.
He noted that DS games have a history of “non-traditional sales curves” that don’t start high and drop but instead grow for a long time. He said consumers are responding to the quality of this game, even if “maybe they’re responding slower than others would expect.”
When pressed, Singer did not provide any figures for what Nintendo’s own sales expectations were for the game.
The release of “Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned” in February saw a lot of promotional support by Microsoft, which had the new “GTA” episode exclusive to its platform. The Xbox 360 dashboard was taken over with promos for the content. By contrast, Nintendo has offered no demo for “Chinatown Wars” on its Nintendo Channel — the Wii online channel that offers downloadable DS demos for top DS games — and seemed to offer no visible promotional boost through its hits platforms or ad campaigns for the game. Could Nintendo have done more to ensure a stronger start for Take Two and Rockstar’s game? Singer said he preferred to keep the arrangements between Nintendo and its publishers private, but did say that, for “Chinatown Wars,” Nintendo has ” worked with them on a marketing plan, a communications plan, [and] television advertising” in both the U.S. and Canada.
In the end, Singer said Nintendo hopes that the sales story of “Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars” will be an encouraging one for game publishers. “I think strategically, this is a very important game because it helps send the message that great M-rated content can come to the platform and will find a home.”
And if that’s not the message coming through today, he said, give it time. “I think all it’s going to take is time.”

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/...belongs-on-ds/ ...

Nintendo may have been denying any rumors of a Wii price cut earlier this month, but it looks like it could possibly be reconsidering its options if this latest sales trend keeps up. Apparently, sales in the U.S. for the month of March clocked in at around 601,000 consoles, or about a 17% drop from a year earlier. During the same period, however, Xbox 360 sales were reportedly up a healthy 26%, while PlayStation 3 sales dipped 15% -- although, in sheer numbers, both were still well behind the Wii. That unsurprisingly didn't make investors too happy, with Nintendo shares falling 6.6% on the Osaka Securities Exchange after the news broke, which accounted for it's biggest drop in more than two months. Also contributing to the sell-off was a 19% drop in Nintendo DS sales compared to the previous year, although the company seems to be betting pretty heavily that the DSi will quickly turn those numbers around.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/17/n...in-wii-demand/ ...

The reason Blu-ray recorders have migrated from Japan to the UK recently -- and why you'll likely never see them in the U.S. -- is all about the copyright holders. Danielle Nagler, head of BBC HD, hit the blogs to break down the wheres and hows of the DRM changes associated with bringing FreeSat disc HD DVRs like the Panasonic DMR-BS850 and Humax FOXSAT-HDR to market, basically meaning users are allowed one HD copy of a show, which can be played back on protected devices and connections only (transfer to portable players is planned to the future.) Follow the flow chart for the details, and figure out if it'd be worth it to make your own BD-R DVR backups so easily.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/17/b...ray-recorders/ ...

There's a mild chance that Sony Ericsson CEO Hideki Komiyama has been hitting the sauce just a wee bit too hard of late, but we're guessing it's mostly just an inability to comprehend his own company's situation. As SE pushes out awful report after awful report, the company's head honcho has just revealed that it'll be some time yet before it hops on the Android bandwagon -- as if it really has time on its side. In an interview with Reuters, he stated: "[Going Android] does require a lot of evaluation, as well as a lot of testing, a lot of acceptance from a consumer viewpoint, and there is still some time to go." He did confess that "looking ahead," he viewed it as an "important operating system," but he definitely gave no indication that we'd see an Android-based SE handset in the near future. Which is strange, really, considering that we'd already heard it would produce one during this calender year...

http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/17/s...-anytime-soon/ ...