Beyond Good & Evil returns - Xbox News at GameSpot

If you've ever played a good Action Adventure game, Beyond Good & Evil is one of those. The critics liked it very much, although this did not look on the selling. I liked the original game, it was funny, logical and had a great story. Now it looks as the story is going to continue. I was looking at uplay.com just a few hours before the Ubidays show started, but I unfortunately I missed the live version of it, but some sites have the trailer.

Earlier this month, Rayman creator Michel Ancel told French magazine JeuxVideo that he'd been in preproduction on a sequel to Beyond Good & Evil for a year, but the project had yet to receive a green light from Ubisoft. That go-ahead has apparently been given. The publisher capped off its Ubidays press event with a teaser trailer for Ancel's next project, and the clip featured the porcine sidekick of the original game, Pey'j.

Source: gamespot.com

Though no official announcement was made at Ubisoft's morning press conference, a video was shown designed to show off new advancements in graphics engine technology. It also barely concealed a hint that development has already begun on a sequel to the critically acclaimed Beyond Good and Evil.

Source: xbox360.gamespy.com

Tags: Culture | XBOX

Hop1800 phone that costs just $10

The Hop1800 from Hop-on the will come in two varieties; a dual-band 850/1900MHz and a 900/1800MHz for Europe and Asia. It will weigh 77 grams, offer 4 hours of talk time, 150 hours of standby time and polyphonic ring tones.

At a $10 price point in the US retail and convenient stores, the Hop1800 could be considered disposable, but the company offers a $5 rebate for returning the phone to encourage recycling the phone to “Keep it Green”.

The makers say that the phone will be able to be used with over 40 operators around the world including AT&T, Cingular and T-Mobile in the US, as well as, through Hop-On’s own low cost Graffiti Wireless network.

Source: pocket-lint.co.uk

For your $10, Hop-on’ Hop 1800 brings the user the straightforwardness and simplicity of mobile calling. No display, no texting, only supports dual-band GSM, and ideal mobile phone for those that either do not understand all the tech stuff in today’s modern phone, or who just simple want to make a regular call. Hop-on is to make two variants of the disposable handset; one is to be GSM 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands for the US and the other will support 900/1800 MHz GSM for Europe and Asia.

Source: phonesreview.co.uk

Tags: Asia | Europe | mobile | dual-band | HANDSET | Hop-on | Phone | polyphonic ring tones | Tech & Biz | Technology

The Hello Kitty phone is coming . . . your daughter will want one

Technology is combining with trends, so now your daughter is a target of mobile phones (if she is older then 9) or your girlfriend if she is in favour of the brand.

Mobile phones branded with the popular children’s character Hello Kitty are due to hit the high street in July, prompting parental fears over the marketing of phones at the youngest in society.

Health fears persist about mobile phone use by children, with an authoritative report in 2005 concluding that 9 to 14-year-olds should make only short, essential calls. The report by Sir William Stewart said that children under 8 should not use mobile phones at all.

Products with Hello Kitty cartoon cat images are aimed at children as young as five. Parenting experts said last night that children would pressurise adults to buy the phone, which can be bought online for $599 (£310), as a fashion accessory.

Source: technology.timesonline.co.uk via pgaliba

Oxford-based firm Comment Retail Service won the contract with manufacturer Sanrio for the exclusive licence to produce the phone in Britain and Ireland.

They said the phones would appeal to women in their 20s and 30s but child safety campaigners said the move was “exploiting children”.

Sue Palmer, author of advice book Detoxing Childhood, said: “A Hello Kitty phone would concern me considerably. The products are very pink and very attractive to young girls.

“It is very irresponsible. They need a new market and they are exploiting children.”

Source: telegraph.co.uk via pgaliba

Tags: Ireland | mobile | only | cellphone | children | great britain | Hello Kitty | july | parental fears | Phone | sanrio | Tech & Biz | Technology | William Stewart

Napster launches DRM-free download service

More and more music stores are finally turning away from DRM (Digital Rights Management), which is good for the customers, as they can listen to the music they bought on any devices they have and prefer to listen music on. DRM protected music may not be available in your home stereo or in your car, but nowadays you can use those too, and do not require to buy some fancy MP3 player, like an iPod, a Creative Zen, or a Zune to play those back.

Napster has become the first online music store in the UK to offer DRM-free downloads from all four major music labels.

The company has also switched focus from its monthly subscription model to concentrate on per-track downloads, although both options will be supported by the online service.

Over six million songs are available from the store at 79p each, and the removal of the "DRM cloud" will give customers more freedom to do as they please with their purchases, says Napster boss Chris Gorog.

Napster's monthly subscription model charges users $10 or $15 per month to access tracks for as long as their subscription remains active. DRM technology renders files unusable once this payment is canceled.

Source: pcpro.co.uk via pgaliba

The Napster store will compete directly with a similar service from Amazon, the only other online store with MP3s from all the major labels, and Apple's iTunes, which offers a limited number of MP3 tracks from EMI Records.

The move also shifts Napster away from its previous "all you can eat" music service, which let users access as much music as they wanted for a monthly subscription.

"We believe ultimately that consumers will be moving to an unlimited music model," said Mr Gorog, adding that Napster will continue to support its subscription service.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk via pgaliba

Tags: Chris Gorog | downloads | Drm-free | monthly subscription model | music store | napster | online | Tech & Biz | Technology | tracks

Hungarian Emfesz says to start building new plant

Hungarian gas wholesaler Emfesz said on Thursday that next year it would start building its planned gas-fuelled power plant which will have a total capacity of 2,400 megawatts.

The first two of the plant's six 400-MW units will be operational by 2011 and construction is expected to be completed by 2015, Emfesz said in a statement.

The plant will be built in northeast Hungary, near the border with Ukraine, at a total cost of 1.5 billion euros ($2.33 billion).

Source: uk.reuters.com via pgaliba

Nuclear energy in Hungary should play a role in the future and its contribution must be evaluated, the environment minister told MTI on Thursday.

Climate change dictates the use of alternative energy resources with relatively little or practically no carbon-dioxide emissions. One of these resources is nuclear energy, said Imre Szabo.

Szabo said he agreed with professor Istvan Lang, who was a key participant in drafting Hungary's climate change policy, that the role of nuclear energy had to be reconsidered.

Source: budapesttimes.hu via pgaliba

Tags: budapest | hungary | lang | Role | agreed | alternative | carbon-dioxide | Climate | contribution | dictates | DRAFTING | Emissions | Environment | evaluated | imre | Istvan | Minister | Nuclear | participant | policy | practically | Professor | Reconsidered | relatively | Resources | Szabo | thursday