Acer announced its Tempo X960 smartphone at Mobile World Congress today. The Windows Mobile-powered touchscreen phone features a 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS, and a widget-based Windows Mobile operating system.

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The Acer Tempo DX900 smartphone is the first in its class to support two SIM cards at both 3G and EDGE data speeds. Announced at the 2009 Mobile World Congress in Spain, the DX900 is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and features a 2.8″ VGA (640×480 pixels) resolution touchscreen display.

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We had a chance to handle the new HTC Magic Android-powered touchscreen smartphone. This sleek device features a 3.2 megapixel camera with video recording capability, WiFi, and GPS for Google Maps integration and localized Google search.

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We had the chance to check out the Samsung OmniaHD multimedia and video phone at Mobile World Congress today. The smartphone is capable of recording HD video with an 8 megapixel camera and features a 3.7-inch touchscreen display.

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Acer launched its new Tempo M900 smartphone this morning, featuring a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and 3.8-inch WVGA (800×480 pixels) resolution touchscreen display. The M900 is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and sports an embedded fingerprint scanner for extra security.

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Filed under: Culture

While not as prestigious as the highly coveted Vector Monkey, the Game Audio Network Guild’s audio awards are the most respected acknowledgements of achievement in video game sound design in the development community. As such, the aural masterminds over at Media Molecule have a lot to celebrate. GANG’s recently released list of 2009 nominees is extremely LittleBigPlanet-centric — the texturized, D.I.Y. platformer netted eight nods; most notably, it’s in the running for Music of the Year, Best Interactive Score and overall Audio of the Year.

Other highly nominated titles include World of Warcraft with five nods, and Fable II, Gears 2, Star Wars: TFU and Dead Space with four a piece. Winners will be announced during GANG’s 7th Annual Awards Show, held in conjunction with the 2009 Game Developers Conference on March 26. We’ve got the full list of nominees posted after the break!

[Via Develop]

Continue reading LittleBigPlanet snags eight nominations in GANG audio awards

LittleBigPlanet snags eight nominations in GANG audio awards originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360

The latest edition of the Bionic Commando podcast includes a Q&A session with Dead Rising creator Keiji Inafune. Strangely, he seems unwilling to divulge many new details about Dead Rising 2, but talks in length about collaborating with a Western developer. The sequel has been farmed out to Canadian-based Blue Castle Games, but Inafune is eager to state that developers from the original game are working very closely with the DR2 team, with conference calls occurring every week.

“[Blue Castle Games] really understood the Japanese flavor that made Dead Rising so unique,” says Inafune. “They showed me that they are serious about making a game that keeps that Capcom ’spice’ intact, and so far it’s going very well.” He hopes to make Dead Rising 2 an improvement over the original, as the game will be developed from a global perspective. This level of collaboration between East and West, he says, is unprecedented for Capcom. Perhaps the Resident Evil team should look into trying something similar for its next title?

In terms of actual gameplay details, there’s little to glean from the podcast. Inafune does mention that the new character will be much more interesting than Frank West, but doesn’t want to give away too much right now. Blue Castle feels that keeping the time management aspect of the original game in the sequel is important, but is planning a much larger variety of mission objectives. Have a listen yourself for more Dead Rising 2 tidbits.

Keiji Inafune talks Dead Rising 2 in Capcom podcast originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360

Recently formed Robot Entertainment has answered the question of who’s going to support Halo Wars after its launch on March 3: the people who made it. Robot — created by ex Ensemble Studios staff, including its founder, Tony Good — will not only provide online support and community management for the Halo universe RTS, but will be working with Microsoft Game Studios to create future content for the game.

Robot will also be working with MGS on the Ensemble-created Age of Empires franchise going forward, with the intent to handle support for current and future titles in the series. In a release issued today, the developer also announced that it has begun work on a new project based on an original IP. Given the various unannounced projects revealed when Ensemble closed its doors, we wouldn’t be at all surprised if this new game isn’t an RTS.

Robot to develop further Halo Wars content, new IP originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Call of Duty: World At War continues its slow descent down the UK Charts this week, ending up at number four, while Wii Fit clings onto the number one spot for the millionth week in a row. New contender FEAR 2 gives an admirable performance, making its way to the number two spot, though we suspect this may not last very long. House Of The Dead: Overkill sadly didn’t make the top ten, instead coming in at number 15. Considering the number of Wii owners clamoring for hardcore games, they don’t seem to be buying them when they actually appear.

With Wii Fit, Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii and Mario And Sonic At The Olympic Games all in the top ten week after week, is it any wonder developers are more likely to produce waggle-thons and mini-game collections for the console?

FEAR 2 debuts at #2 in UK charts originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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G4’s X-Play and Attack of the Show have been hit by cuts and layoffs. Following up on information given to us by reliable sources — that the network’s two flagship shows have been hit by reductions — a G4 representative sent us a statement confirming much of the information.

X-Play, which upped its production schedule back in December, will now be reduced to three original episodes per week. Attack of the Show will now air four original episodes per week. Both shows will scale down starting March 2. Although G4 would not comment on “personnel matters,” it could confirm that fewer episodes did result in a staff reduction. Cost saving will go into “more original programming in 2009.” The network was clear to state that “this is not a budget cut” and G4 “remains dedicated to these core franchises.” As always, if you were affected by the layoffs or have more information, please feel free to contact us.

G4 makes staff and schedule cuts to X-Play, Attack of the Show originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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