XBox Live Prices Going Up But Audio Upgrade And Avatar 2.0 Incoming

It’s bound to cause a stir but there’s a price rise in store for XBox Live Gold membership and, in all honesty, it’s not really that big a surprise. As Microsoft has said in their blog post, they have added and upgraded the service considerably since 2002 and haven’t since then increased the price. Yes, the additions helped to make the service more popular but the proposed rise to £6 per month still represents good value for money we think.

While the increase isn’t quite global, it will see prices in the US rise from $50 to $60 a year and in the UK it will go up to £6 per month with a Canadian subscription increasing to $12CAD per month. When you consider what else you can get for these kinds of prices it really isn’t that bad.

To help appease the masses and partially because of the launch of Kinect, one suspects, there is an audio upgrade inbound. The quality of multiplayer chat has been somewhat limited by the audio codec which only required a 64k connection. As msot gamers now pack seriously more punch than this, Microsoft has quite rightly deduced they can afford to improve the quality of the codec.

You won’t have to put up with the crackly abuse anymore, and you’ll be able to quite clearly hear the insults being hurled at you by annoying foreign kids.

There’s also news of another XBox Live upgrade coming our way, this time in the shape of Avatar 2.0. The upgrade will mean that avatars will appear considerably more realistic and lifelike than the current cartoon or caricature looking ones.

Avatars are extremely popular and they’ve undoubtedly proven a good little money spinner for Microsoft as new outfits and accessories, which generally cost a fairly minimal amount of Microsoft Points, are downloaded my masses of people.

Does £6 a month still represent good value for money?

Join us on Facebook and let us know what you think of the price increases.

Angry Birds Tops iPhone App Charts And Could Become A Movie

There was once a time when a game/movie tie-in was quite unusual and almost always ended up in disaster. Although, in all honesty, games made into movies tended to fare better than cross-overs in the other direction. Then, along came next gen consoles dragging gamers out of the gutter where they once had to hide and everything went a bit mainstream. The end result was considerably cooler games made from film licenses.

It should come as little suprirse then that the most popular iPhone app in most parts of the world, a ridiculously addictive game called Angry Birds, could possibly be turned into a movie and a toy. And yet, somehow, it seems like a weird move even by a Finnish iPhone game developer.

The game has proven a massive hit just about everywhere and at 99c it’s fairly easy to see why. There are a multitude of levels (over 180 in the latest version, in fact) that players can unlock which keep people like me coming abck for more and the game physics are surprisingly and impressively accurate.

You can even play online, submit your score to worldwide leaderboards, and a whole lot more – seriously impressive for just 99c. With that said, the game has nearly a quarter of a million ratings which means you can probably assume several million dollars’ worth of sales.

The trailer for Angry Birds has been viewed more than 5 million times on YouTube and the company responsible want to make the most of the games success. They’re fervently trying to find a company that can produce and create a movie of the game quickly to get it out and selling before the hype dies down. They also want to tell the Angry Birds story via the medium of cartoon and possibly create a popular line of Angry Birds based toys.

Have you been busy blowing up pigs with chickens?

Join us on Facebook to find out about the latest iPhone apps and games.

Facebook Has Overtaken TV And Drunken Nights As Students’ Favourite Pastime

The rumours that students are a bunch of lazy shirkers could well be true and rather than sitting in front of the TV watching Countdown or at the student union topping up on cheap booze, the average student now spends the equivalent of a whole working day on social networking sites like Facebook. In contrast, the 7.5 hours they spend networking is only marginally less than the typical 9.5 hours a week spent doing coursework.

If you’re looking for the ideal source of procrastination then Facebook is apparently it and nearly two thirds of students will attest to that fact citing it as the main reason for them being distracted from work. What’s more, while the hard working masses may not be able to afford the likes of a brand new iPhone or Blackberry it seems that student grants provide an ideal way to buy a smartphone.

Students take more than £1,000 of gadgets with them to university, and around a third of those questioned said that they couldn’t do without their iPhone/Blackberry smartphone.

If you’ve ever considered doing a degree but have held back then maybe the news that you’ll spend 13 hours a week surfing the Internet, watch 2 films a week on your laptop, and spend nearly all of the rest of your spare time on Facebook with the occasional and brief break to do some coursework might be enough to grab your attention to drag you to university.

The survey was conducted by customer review firm Reevoo to coincide with the release of their list of top rated student laptops. The awards were as follows:

• Most portable – Acer Aspire One D250 (£214)
• Best on a budget – HP Compaq Mini 110c (£209)
• Best looking – Apple MacBook Pro (£1,106)
• Best battery – Apple MacBook Pro MC118B/A (£1,307)
• Best movie player – Sony Vaio VGN-AW41MF (£970)
• Best gamer – Acer Aspire 8942G-726G64BN (£1,196)

Are you a student?

Should you doing coursework rather than surfing the ‘net?

Gamer’s Broadband Released As Defence Secretary Slams Medal Of Honor Game

World of Warcraft and XBox Live addicts are getting a new hypodermic needle to fill their craving bodies with more online gaming as Demon Internet is releasing a new gamers’ priority Broadband package. Gaming traffic is given priority with the £22 per month package which means that there should be a lot less lag and fewer interruptions while playing favourite online games. For anybody that’s got caught out with dodgy buffering in the midst of a round of Call of Duty will testify it could just be the icing on the cake.

Installation of the new package costs gamers £30 but there is a limit on bandwidth or usage. 100GB a month should be ample even for the heavy gamers and the restriction “only” applies during the hours of 8am and 11pm when most gamers are presumably enjoying their much needed rest ready for another all night gaming session.

One game that you may not be able to play through the new service, at least if defence secretary Liam Fox has his way, is the new Medal of Honor game. Fox has branded the title as unBritish under the misguided belief that players are rewarded for fighting as the Taliban and killing British soldiers.

The latest MOH title is another realistic title this time taking on the Taliban and the war in Afghanistan. The game is an 18 rated title and the single player campaign sees gamers playing as US soldiers attempting to fight and ultimately defeat the Taliban.

One thing Fox should have considered before urging retailers to stop selling the title is that the game is US manufactured and, as is tradition, it is short sighted enough to exclude all but the US from the allies side. Players can play as the Taliban in multiplayer as the game takes on the traditional route of pitting player against player so Taliban vs the US it is.

Will you play as the Talian in the new Medal of Honor game?

Will you fork out £30 installation and £22 per month for the gamer’s broadband package?

5 Essential And Free iPhone Apps For Shopping Junkies

The iPhone is an absolute phenomenon especially in terms of its app store that operates under the premise that if there’s just about anything you want to do or be able to do then there’s an app for that. Whether your thing is sport, movies, or news you can get an app to keep you updated, find venues, and more. For shopping junkies there are apps to find your nearest high street stores or to buy anything from a pair of socks or a pint of milk to a new house.

View The Top 5 Shopping Apps…

Samsung SWYPE Key Pad Helps Woman Break World Text Speed Record

Just about everybody has heard the humerous anecdote about mankind evolving into a more efficient texting animal and while this may not have yet come true, mobile phone manufacturers are certainly doing their bit to help us move forward (if that’s how you want to view it). A British woman, who just happened to be passing a Motorola roadshow, was invited to try out the Samsung Galaxy S with its new SWYPE keyboard that enables users to send a text without removing their finger from the keypad.

In just 25.94 seconds she typed out the message “the razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human” beating the previous world record by a sliver under 10 seconds. While the potentially world record breaking time has yet to be verified by the Guiness Book of World Records it looks likely to have texted Melissa Thompson, aged 27 and from Salford, Greater Manchester, in the record books. It’s also a nice piece of marketing for Samsung.

She puts her success down to the experience she gained texting boyfriend Chris but believed that she had lost the knack sinec the couple had moved in together and she had started working. Melissa’s record breaker means that Samsung really can claim that the new technology enables people to send texts at speeds never before possible.

Presumably, people have grown more accustomed to texting and emailing, and the most recent figures of silver texters and silver emailers certainly seems to back that up. 71% of people aged over 65 use email to update loved ones with their news while 15% say that they use text for such actions. Not quite so popular is Facebook, although they still manage to amass a 4% share of the over 65 market.

Are you over 65?

Do you text, email, or Facebook big news to friends and family?

Google Chrome OS Tablet Release Date 26 November… Maybe

Google itself aims to release a touch screen tablet PC just in time for Christmas apparently (in the US at least). The tablet, which will be manufactured by HTC and will be released on the 26th November.

Obviously it will be using the new Google Chrome operating system and other sketchy/leaked/assumed (delete as you see fit) details include the fact that it will have a multi-touch screen and will use the Tegra 2 chip from Nvidia. Whether it will dethrone the iPad remains to be seen but is unlikely given the incredible popularity of that particular little Apple gem, however, it could be a decent alternative.

Acer is also planning on releaseing a Google Chrome OS based system and has taken to the whole Google thing like a duck takes to water. With the popularity of the iPad ever growing, thanks to the fact that it has few viable rivals and offers a mass of apps and the such, it is unsurprising to see a number of manufacturers and companies throwing their hats onto the table and declaring themselves as Apple’s next rival.

The Google Chrome OS is being launched on the back of the increased Android mobile operating system popularity and it’s main aim is to get users logged on and online as quickly as possible. The Internet is where most of the system’s wizardry will occur so the system files and registry stored on the computer itself will be minimal.

While the operating system is initially being targeted at netbook users, mostly because of the fact that it should prove to be tiny in comparison to Microsoft offerings, it’s likely that any kind of success would see Google taking it mainstream with updated, and bigger and better versions.

Will Google Chrome OS be rocking your netbook?

Is Google going to take over the world some day soon?

Google Games And Sony Videos

Apps are absolutely everywhere, and Google is bringing an app store to Google Chrome that will include in-browser gaming. Showing off the potential of the new apps, they said that they would charge a 5% fee to developers for including their games in the app store that is set to launch in October. It could also be part of the reason why Google has been buying up social gaming companies and online gaming companies, although many believe that they’ve done this to help them launch a social networking site to rival the likes of Facebook.

Many users turn to sites like Facebook in order to play games because it offers a central location, a single account, and a simplified way of finding the games that interest them the most. The app store which will include some pretty big games straight from the off including Doom and Worms games, it is a bold move but could potentially help them gain a greater market share from their Google Chrom web explorer software which competes with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox.

Gamers will be able to pay using Google Checkout online payment system and it will support free game trials, regular subscriptions, and discounts.

Meanwhile, in gaming, Sony has announced that the next incarnation of the PS3 will include streaming videos and ITV Player. This means that you will be able to watch BBC programs through the iPlayer feature and ITV programs, and you will also be able to stream videos from Mubi. There was no announcement regarding the alleged deal with Channel 4 to bring 4OD to the gaming system but that could also be just round the corner.

As with most things Sony, there will be a community side to the whole thing which will let users chat and enjoy Facebook integration and more.

Will you be watching free TV shows and streaming movies on your Sony?

Live Fantasy Football Game Launched For New Premier Season

The Premiership season kicks off tomorrow and while many people’s attention may be taken the antics of the Big Four or one of the smallest clubs in Premier history, Blackpool, fans of fantasy football games have a new way to enjoy games. The PickLive website is a new fantasy football like game that enables players to choose 3 players for televised games and then play in short 7.5 minute matches against 10 other people in a game room.

As yet we can’t find any way of winning money but with 17 different ways to score or indeed lose points it’s pretty in depth and according to the game creators an average 90 minute match would have around 1,200 scoring events compared to 15 in more typical fantasy football games.

There’s a very good selection of games in which you can take part and once you’ve signed up you choose 3 players from a match rather than the usual 11. As the game progresses, scores are updated in real time and you can even make 3 live substitutions as the game progresses.

The game went through its final test phase during the World Cup and the team behind the game say that tests went better than they could have ever hoped for and this led to the release of the game just in time for the start of the Premiership campaign.

Lets face it, much as we love the game of football, some of the matches can be incredibly dull and make 90 minutes feel like a prison sentence. Putting money on the game can help to improve the situation a little but not everybody wants to gamble away their wages getting scores wrong. PickLive looks like it could prove to be a fun and entertaining way to supplement the enjoyment of any game and you can play against mates too.

Have you tried PickLive yet?

Have you got your fantasy 11 sorted?

Google Adds To Social Media Portfolio By Buying Slide

Google has been making headways of sorts into the social networking arena and many analysts believe that they are gearing themselves up for a concerted push at the social networking crown that is currently held by Facebook. While they already own a number of social networking sites, including Orkut which is apparently very popular in Brazil, they have yet to make a real splash in Europe and the US.

The launch of Google Wave was about as high profile as you could get and while it was dubbed as being a social networking service, in reality it turned out to be an overly complicated suite of collaborative and communicative tools. It was so overwhelming, in fact, that it attracted far too few users to make it viable and Google has pulled the plug on the project stopping all support to the Google Wave services.

This week’s deal, worth a reputed $228m in acquisition fees and employee retention bonuses, is actually the latest in a reasonably long list of social media related acquisitions and it seems that if they’re going to have another swing at the social media game then they’re going to do it big time. Having already purchased a major part of social gaming company Zynga, the acquisition of Slide is yet another feather in their social gaming and social media cap.

Slide was established by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and looks almost certain to be the latest step towards a service that has been dubbed Google ME. Presumably, they know that taking on a website that now has more than 500 million devoted users across the world is not going to be a quick and simple push and it is quite possible that there may be some games and other social media additions that will become Google ME exclusive. One thing’s for sure, they’re not buying these companies just to tell the grandchildren that they own and run the likes of SuperPoke!

Were you a Google Wave user?

Will you join Google ME as soon as it surfaces in the wild?

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