A feast of XBLA games may be headed to Xbox Live Marketplace soon, but that’s not all there is. First up, there are a lot of festivities planned for the launch of Halo: Reach. Microsoft is dubbing September 14-20 “Invasion Week,” and plenty of Halo goodies will be available “including new gear, exciting content, spectacular prizes and a chance to play with the creators of the game.” Microsoft will also be offering opening up Xbox Live Gold features to Silver members from September 17-20. Finally, “all fans that jump online” can download a free “Invasion” theme. It’s a bit unclear exactly what’s meant by “jump online,” whether it be players that play Halo: Reach or simply anyone that signs into Live. We’ve contacted Microsoft for clarification.
New Deals of the Week are headed down the pipeline as well, with Resident Evil 5 “avatar outfits and game add-ons” receiving as yet unspecified discounts next week. The week of September 13, several puzzle games will get the DoTW treatment. Bust-a-Move Live, Puzzle Chronicles and Tower Bloxx Deluxe are all being knocked from 800 MSP ($10) to 400 MSP ($5), while Gyromancer will drop from 1200 MSP ($15) to 800 MSP ($10).
If you still have money to spend after all that, some new Rock Band 3 Avatar items are now on Marketplace, as are two new Games on Demand, Bully: Scholarship Edition and Cabela’s African Safari.
Xbox Live in September: Halo goodies, free Live Gold, cheap puzzle games originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Today’s a special day for the Apple world, as we anxiously await word on what new products or services are forthcoming from the wizards of Cupertino. TUAW will be liveblogging the event at 1 PM EDT (10 AM PDT) today, and later this afternoon on TUAW TV Live, fellow TUAW editor Mike Rose will be joining me to discuss the announcements.
As we do every week, we invite your comments, your questions, and your insights into what’s going on in the world of Apple. The show starts at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT) here at TUAW.com — drop by a few minutes early and we’ll have the livestream and chat windows warmed up and ready to go, along with full instructions on how to join in on the fun.
It’s sure to be a lively discussion of the news of the day, and we hope you can join us.
TUAWTUAW TV Live: The after-liveblog episode originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Wow! We have a lot to talk about today on TUAW TV Live. There’s so much to talk about that two of us are going to be chatting it up on the show this afternoon. Mike Rose is joining me to talk about the new iPods, the updates to iTunes, Ping, and that new Apple TV. As usual, you can join in on the discussion — we’d love to see how you feel about the new product lineup for fall.
Now it’s time to get on with the show! To join in from your Mac or PC, just go to the next page by clicking the link at the bottom of this post, and you’ll find a live stream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to join in on the fun by asking questions or making comments.
If you’re driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you’re stuck in traffic, please don’t — keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone by downloading the free Ustream Viewing Application.
iPad users haven’t been forgotten, either, as you can tune in to TUAW TV Live on your iPad! That link will send you to a non-Flash page, although you won’t have access to our chat tool.
TUAWTUAW TV Live: The Apple event aftershow with Steve and Mike originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Good news for UK mobile addicts: Orange’s long-anticipated HD Voice service has officially made it to the Land of Hope and Glory. Starting today, British customers can pick up a HD Voice-enabled handset — including the Nokia 5230, X6, E5 and Samsung Omnia Pro at launch — from Orange, and start buttering their ears with “crystal clear” phone calls while within the carrier’s 3G coverage. Prior to the launch, we were fortunate enough to try out the new service on a couple of Nokia E5 prototypes, and boy, that was some pretty impressive stuff there — the wider speech bandwidth really added a lot of clarity to the caller’s voice, and additionally, the noisy traffic from the caller’s end was well suppressed at where it’d otherwise crackle over a normal call. Perhaps the easiest way to put it is that this is much like jumping from a bad FM radio broadcast to some sweet CD audio, thus making conversations a lot easier to interpret even if the recipient is in a noisy environment. As always, hearing is believing, so do check out our sample audio clips after the break.
While Orange remains a dominant driving force behind this mobile revolution, the carrier assured us that it expects other companies to pick up this open standard. That said, it’s rather disappointing that current owners of the aforementioned handsets won’t be getitng a software patch for the HD upgrade (we were told that no extra hardware is involved), but we can understand — the manufacturers do need to sell new phones to stay alive in this rapidly changing market. Anyhow, here’s hoping that the forthcoming flagship Android and Windows Phone 7 devices will also get a taste of this crystal clear call quality.
Continue reading Orange HD Voice service and handsets go live in the UK, we go ears-on (video)
Orange HD Voice service and handsets go live in the UK, we go ears-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It looks like Apple has decided that it’s finally time to let the public in on their press events — the company will be streaming live footage from the event tomorrow on its website. Traditionally, the company has depended on third parties (like, ahem, us — we’ll still be metaliveblogging the event here on TUAW, don’t worry), but it looks like tomorrow’s event is free for everyone to watch.
That’s assuming things all go to plan, of course — it’ll likely be tough for even Apple to keep up with the demand of streaming out live video to what must be millions of people around the world. Apple’s PR release says that the stream will be up on Apple.com tomorrow at 10am PDT, and that it will be viewable on Macs with Safari and Snow Leopard installed, or iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads running iOS 3.0 or higher.
So tune in tomorrow morning — we’ll see if Apple can handle the demands of its hungry customers on live streaming day. And even if not, we’ll be here with all of the information you need anyway.
TUAWApple to stream video of tomorrow’s live event originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Team Meat’s manic and mercilessly tenderized hero, Super Meat Boy, is set to make his debut on Xbox Live Arcade on October 20. The developer announced the date via Twitter, and indicated that the well-done platformer would be part of “Game Feast,” a new promotion from Microsoft Game Studios that should be detailed later today.
With Super Meat Boy making up the main course, Game Feast might just be burger, better and more badass than the recently concluded Summer of Arcade. See the full poster after the break.
Continue reading Xbox Live Arcade’s ‘Game Feast’ serves up Super Meat Boy on Oct. 20
Xbox Live Arcade’s ‘Game Feast’ serves up Super Meat Boy on Oct. 20 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Utilities, Windows
When Microsoft revealed the first beta version of Windows Live Essentials, a number of Live Mesh users were a little miffed. In addition to dropping the name, Microsoft dialed back the free storage space from 5GB to 2GB.
Today, however, they’ve announced that they’re going to take a mulligan and un-re-name Live Sync. It’s going to be called Live Mesh after all, and more importantly you’re also going to get that extra 3GB of space back.
Mesh probably makes more sense anyway, what with Sync including the desktop remote functionality. But hey, who gives a rat’s patoot about the name when you can now cram in more than double the digital crud? Who knows, maybe some day they’ll open the floodgates and let us have Mesh access to the whole 25GB SkyDrive theoretically offers…
Windows Live Sync dies, zombie Live Mesh is reborn originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Live Mesh – Microsoft – Software release life cycle – Windows Live SkyDrive – Windows Live Essentials
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This might not be as sexy as its recent physical redesign, but the Xbox 360 is about to take what might be a major leap forward for many gamers. The console’s voice chat codec is going to be tweaked in an upcoming system update to allow a higher bit rate, and consequently better audio, through. Originally put together to run on 64k internet connections with the original Xbox, the codec’s finally catching up with our broadband times and should see itself renewed some time this fall, potentially alongside the retail launch of Kinect. Great, now when 12-year old kids destroy us in Halo, we’ll be able to hear their high-pitched gloating with crystal clarity.
Microsoft set to up bit rate on Xbox Live voice comms, pwners everywhere rejoice originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Although it is overshadowed by the younger, touch-based members of the Apple family, the Mac is seeing a resurgence in popularity. Perhaps driven by the ‘halo effect’ around the success of the iPod, iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, more and more individuals, schools, and businesses are buying Macs.
Today on TUAW TV Live, your humble host presents another all-Mac episode. Inspired by the Mac makeovers from last weekend, we’ll talk about upgrades, backups, repurposing or selling old Macs, and also feature demos of some new Mac software. As always, you’re welcome to ask questions during the show via live chat.
To watch or participate in today’s show, visit TUAW later today (just before 5 PM EDT/2 PM PDT) and we’ll have full instructions on how to join in.
TUAWTUAW TV Live: Another all-Mac episode today at 5 PM EDT originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Welcome back for another hour of TUAW TV Live, our weekly live show where you can join in on the fun.
Today, of course, the show is going to be twice the fun when Tim Robertson of OWC Radio and MyMac.com joins host Steve Sande for a lively discussion of the Apple world. Whether we’re talking about the new iPad ad, upgrading old Mac hardware, the iPhone 4, favorites from the App Store, or if we’re following up on something you said in the chat, it’s going to be a raucous discussion. And of course, since Tim’s on the show, we’ll be sure to do a quick round of “This or That” before we’re done.
To join in from your Mac or PC, just go to the next page by clicking the link at the bottom of this post, and you’ll find a live stream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to join in on the fun by asking questions or making comments.
If you’re driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you’re stuck in traffic, please don’t — keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone by downloading the free Ustream Viewing Application.
We haven’t forgotten about iPad users, as you can tune in to TUAW TV Live on your iPad! That link will send you to a non-Flash page, although you won’t have access to our chat tool.
Remember, old episodes of TUAW TV Live are always available for your viewing pleasure on Ustream.
TUAWTUAW TV Live – Today it’s twice the fun originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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