Filed under: PlayStation Store

We hope you like themes, because there’s not a lot else available today, apart from a couple of add ons and a demo. In fact, today’s update is even lacking trailers - not to mention a huge hole where the Guitar Hero 3 downloadable content should be. Here’s the full release list:

• Kane & Lynch demo (free)
• Motorstorm “Domino & Adventure” vehicle pack (£1.49)
• Folklore “The Origin of Belae” add-on pack (£1.49)
• Blazing Angels 2 Multiplayer trailer (free)
• Mesmerize theme (free)
• Tori Emaki theme (free)
• Heavenly Sword theme (free)
• Snakeball theme (free)
• Lemmings theme (free)
• Killzone 2 theme (free)
• Singstar theme (free)

Themes are all well and good, but where are the downloadable titles Europe has been promised for ages now? Puzzle Fighter, Everyday Shooter - even Blast Factor: Advanced Research hasn’t been made available to us yet. As for the Guitar Hero 3 downloadable content, the least said about that, the better. You were doing so well SCEE. What went wrong?

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Comcast Cl’A’ (CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (TWC), Technology

It’s been a while since we’ve seen sharp gains on shares of cable companies. UBS is holding its Global Media Week and Communications Conference today in New York. Earlier today, Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) surprised the markets today during a CNBC video interview when CEO Glenn Britt said that Time Warner wouldn’t be in the bidding for more wireless spectrum in the FCC auction. The company had been a bidder before.

Comcast Inc. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is also opting out of a wireless spectrum bidding. The truth is that both cable companies already have access to spectrum if needed, and there is still more spectrum available on existing infrastructure that can be used if needed.

One interesting development was when Glenn Britt described the demand for a cable company to need wireless as a quadruple play against the telecoms, who now offer video solutions that compete against cable. The old triple- play is still very under-penetrated on a nationwide basis.

Maybe it pays to be patient rather than spending a few hundred million here and a couple billion there. Sooner or later it adds up to real money. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has said it would be participating in the spectrum auction in January for the new, more powerful 700-MHz spectrum. If the Googlesaurs want to be rewarded similarly, maybe they’d determine it is cheaper and easier to partner for spectrum openly rather than the spend-spend-spend model.

Time Warner Cable shares are up nearly 4% to $27.05 today, and Comcast shares are up some 2.5% at $21.05. Google shares are down almost 1% at $687.15.

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Filed under: Cell Phones, iPhone

Today, cell phone carrier AT&T announced subscribers’ ability to use any phone they like with the company’s network. This is a policy that the company has (quietly) had for years, but apparently never really talked about. However, with Verizon’s announcement last about opening up its network in 2008, it seems AT&T felt the need to be a little more vocal about the option.

Verizon itself was likely spurred on, at least in part, by Google’s new mobile phone operating system announcement, Android. Google has always praised openness in everything it gets involved with, and there’s no doubt the company will be exerting some pressure on wireless providers who use its software to open up their services. Verizon has signed on to be part of the Android party, while AT&T is still standing coyly at the side of the room.

With this new move AT&T is calling itself “the most open wireless company in the industry,” a claim we’d contest, since it’s been rubbing the “if you want an iPhone you can only get it here” policy in our faces since May. Open up the iPhone, AT&T (and Apple), and we’ll be a little more receptive.

From USA Today

Related Links:

• Verizon Wireless To Let You Use Any Phone On Its Network
• Google Announces gPhone? Not Quite.
• Coming Soon — The Fully-Customizable Linux Phone

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Filed under: Gaming, Portable Audio, Portable Video

We’ve seen, shall we say, creative uses of well-known brands to sell cheapo gear in the past, but it’s not often we see a case as brazen as the one above, which cavalierly throws Sony’s familiar logo onto a generic Chinese PMP in an attempt, presumably, to give it a bit more cred. Of course, there is the little matter that the PMP boasts of its ability to play NES games, and the fact that it uses SD cards instead of Sony’s beloved Memory Sticks — which are certainly welcome features, but not exactly ones high on Sony’s list. If for some reason you want to take a chance on the player, however, you can currently find one on eBay at the link below, with the bidding hovering around the $25 mark (as of this writing).

[Via PMP Today]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Filed under: Interviews

Discounting the excellent PSP-exclusive Daxter, it’s been a while since we’ve seen a new iteration of Naughty Dog’s action platformer. With work finished on Uncharted, Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells had a few things to say to ThreeSpeech. The engine used to create the beautiful vistas of Uncharted will certainly be used as the foundation for their next game. “We will most definitely continue to build on the Uncharted code base with all of our future titles for the PlayStation3. We have a lot of very sophisticated systems that are general purpose and could be used for a wide variety of genres. It’s very exciting to think what we can do with this tech now that it’s in place and we can focus on accomplishing something even more ambitious.”

Of course, what could the team be working on next? “Jak and Daxter is a definite possibility some time in the future. There is a lot of interest around the office in going back to that franchise and seeing what we could do with it using the Uncharted engine.”

Granted, we’d be more than ecstatic for the announcement of either a new Jak or Uncharted game. Leave it to Naughty Dog to create characters that we just can’t get enough of.

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Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Paramount, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Summer Movies, Trailers and Clips

Comingsoon.net has made what seems like a perfectly reasonable assumption to me: that the first trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — I’ll never like that title — may debut during the Super Bowl on February 3rd. Paramount has already declared that the trailer will arrive in February, but it was assumed in some quarters that the premiere would be attached to Paramount’s biggest February release, The Spiderwick Chronicles. But really, is that a big enough event? The trailer would be a far bigger deal than the movie it’s attached to. Putting the Indy 4 trailer up during the Super Bowl makes infinitely more sense to me, and I can’t imagine the marketing department at Paramount isn’t thinking the same thing. Additionally, CS also reports that the first trailer for Star Trek XI will most likely play before Cloverfield in January. And The Dark Knight is on schedule to debut its new teaser in front of I Am Legend on December 14.

In other Indy 4 news, fans of Ray Winstone may want to see the film if just to say farewell — the actor appears to be so exhausted by filming that epic and his other recent projects that he’s now actively considering retirement. “I’ve achieved it [career success] and now I’m finished,” he’s gone on record as saying. “I’m going to let me girls [his kids] get on with it and they can look after me. No more — seriously. That’s it.” Winstone’s role in Indy 4 is as Mac, a sidekick character that will presumably pick up the slack of not having Denholm Elliott be part of the script. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull — nope, still don’t like it — is scheduled to hit theaters on Memorial Day.

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If you are interested in one of the most authentic video gaming experiences possible (at least for racing simulators), then the HotSeats 275 sounds like the perfect addition to your rig. This package comes with Grand Turismo 4 and has an estimated worth of $4,375. You get a couple of Logitech Driving Force Pro force feedback steering wheels with pedals, a Sony Slim PS2 with a controller, an 8MB memory card, a couple of Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers with a remote control and subwoofer unit, a PS2 mounting bracket, two Swinging away consoles and an equal number of cup holders. All in all, the HotSeat 275 is capable of supporting up to three sound speaker systems along with DVD players, VCRs (who uses those these days) and MP3 players. Are you willing to splurge all the money for a gaming experience, or do you prefer to spend it on an actual second hand car?

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

While there’s certainly no shortage of ways to get your photos off your cameraphone and onto your PC, Belkin and Kodak seem to think they’ve got a better way of doing things, with the pair now rolling out a new Bluetooth adapter / software combo that promises to make things even easier. The key to that, it seems, is Kodak’s Picture Upload Technology software, which will apparently automatically pull images off your phone whenever you walk within range of the adapter. Unfortunately, it seems that only XP or Vista users will be able to take advantage of the software, but if that’s not a deal-breaker for you, you should be able to get your hands on the bundle now for $50.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Filed under: Computers, Celebrities, Gift News, Holiday Gift Guide

We always thought there was something off about a fat, red-faced guy, who gave kids gifts for just “being good,” and took to sitting the good boys and girls on his lap. This week some other people started realizing that maybe good ol’ Saint Nick has a few screws loose — including those who tried to speak to Santa via his northpole@live.com address on MSN Messenger. It seems the Microsoft run chat bot really loves talking to kids about fellatio and being high.

The offending lines were prompted by seemingly innocent phrases. Merely typing in “pizza” would often lead to Santa saying “You want me to eat what?!? It’s fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else…” The UK site The Register, which received a reader tip and decided to see if the glitch was indeed for real, even got old Saint Nick to call one of its writers a “dirty bastard.” All you have to do is say the word “cake” and the jolly fat guy gets all high and mighty, “You don’t need drugs when you’re high on life!” Preachy, preachy… and highly inappropriate when IM-loving minors are talking to someone they think is Santa Claus.

Here’s the full transcript from The Register’s conversation of Dirty Rotten Santa:

“El Reg says: pizza (pi)

Santa says: I think you’re dirty bastard.”

Sadly, those of us who may want to check out this dirty rotten Santa bot ourselves are out of luck. Microsoft took away Santa’s screen name and Live address, and issued an apology. The programmer who put the offending code in the bot is still at large, but he or she will surenly be out of a job if Microsoft ever gets wise about the whole thing.

From the Register

Related links:

• Christmas Tree Powered By Electric Eel
• Christmas-Carol-Singing-Robot Gets Knocked Out By Scrooge-Bot
• Decorate Your Desk With the USB Christmas Tree

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Filed under: Products and services, Internet, Google (GOOG), News Corp’B’ (NWS), Technology

As of the end of November, internet rating form comScore concluded that Google, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube online video sharing service led all the U.S. online video competition, holding a 27.6% market share in September. It’s no surprise — if I were to ask 10 people where they could go to watch video on the web, my hunch is that at least 9 would say YouTube.

Was YouTube worth the billion-plus that Google paid for it? First-mover advantage is everything, and if Google can find a workable strategy to monetize the site, then most likely the $1.65 billion price tag won’t look like very much. comScore also stated that Google-owned sites ranked as the top U.S. video property. In September, there were 2.6 billion videos viewed. 2.5 billion of those were via YouTube. I suspect the other 0.1 billion came courtesy of Google Video.

Coming in behind Google in September was News Corp’s (NYSE: NWS) Fox Interactive Media, which includes MySpace, and Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), which saw 387 million and 381 million videos viewed, respectively. Is online video beginning to compete more and more with broadcast television? It’s not too hard to let the cat out of the bag with that statement, since over 9 billion videos were viewed online in September. An estimated 75% of American internet users participated in all that viewing. Yes, I would say that is competition.

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