- News Update - 1 November 2oo6

• Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express (Beta 2)

     Working in XNA Game Studio Express can be as easy as drag and drop.

  Gamers are invited to change the industry with XNA Game Studio Express.

 

  Something is wrong with the game industry, at least that's what Scott Henson, Director of Platform Strategy for the Game Developer Group at Microsoft, believes. "For the last couple years we've been wrestling with some fundamental problems," he tells us during a phone interview about a new plan from Microsoft to reinvigorate the game industry. He elaborates on the situation: "Here are the three problems we've been wrestling with. The first is ... retaining talent. The statistics we're getting from universities are not encouraging. We're seeing computer science enrollment in many universities down 30 percent year over year. If that continues, not only is our industry in trouble, but many industries are in trouble ... The second one is, what about the pipeline coming in? What about the new blood? ... The third is, we've become an industry that is very afraid to take risks."

 

This all may sound pretty bad, but much like Batman, Microsoft has got a plan in mind. This plan involves turning to you, the everyday gamer. Henson says, "We're watching a lot of barriers being knocked down in music and movies and television ... due to web communities like YouTube and MySpace. New ideas are being born everyday. Wouldn't it be cool if we could make that happen for games as well, and create a YouTube for games?"

 

To do this, Microsoft has created XNA Game Studio Express, a set of game development tools designed for the general public. "The only teams that get to develop are the ones with big budgets, big ideas and proven backgrounds. There's not a lot of new creative games being done. There are a few, but there are not enough, and there are not enough new ideas coming into the fold," says Henson. The introduction of XNA Game Studio Express is expected to change that.

 

This set of tools will be free to anyone with a personal computer running Windows XP. Anyone who downloads XNA Game Studio Express will be able to create games for both PC and the Xbox 360 without having to invest in thousand-dollar, professional-grade development kits. Dave Mitchell, Director of Marketing for the Game Developer Group at Microsoft says, "In terms of what the technology is capable of, it's going to be pretty high end."

 

Henson goes into more detail. "We're going to create starter kits that have fully realized games in various genres. You can just change the background or the ships. You can pull up Photoshop and change textures, no problem. But if you want to change some of the way the game actually looks and feels, and you're an                 Marble Blast Ultra is a game from GarageGames that was developed using 

                                                                                                                                   XNA Game Studio Express.

artist, and maybe you know 3D Studio Max or Maya, you'll be able to do that as well. If you don't want to code, you don't have to code. If you do want to write code, this will allow you to go in and do those types of things." Microsoft's plan is more than just releasing the XNA Game Studio Express toolkit. Microsoft is also starting up a "Creators Club" which will allow users to access materials to aid the development progress, and as Henson tells us, "The Creators Club allows you to take all the projects from XNA Game Studio Express and play, develop and test games on a retail Xbox 360." Aspiring game makers will have to pay an annual subscription fee of $99 to join the Creators Club.

  

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Volume 07: Hack your plants, extract your DNA, 70's soapbox saga, build a videocam rocket, and head-mounted water cannon.

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•   VA - Promo Only Mainstream Radio November 2oo6

Track List: 

1. Jay-Z - Show Me What You Got (Edited Version) -osk® (3:42)
2. Justin Timberlake Feat. T.I. - My Love -osk® (4:38)
3. The Pussycat Dolls Ft. Timbaland - Wait A Minute (Alternative Edit) -osk® (3:56)
4. RBD - Tu Amor -osk® (3:48)
5. Vanessa Hudgens - Come Back To Me (No Rap Intro) -osk® (2:45)
6. Gia Farrell - Hit Me Up (Radio Edit) -osk® (3:14)
7. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Tell Me Baby -osk® (4:07)
8. Cherish - Unappreciated -osk® (3:52)
9. Pink - U + Ur Hand -osk® (3:33)
10. Yung Joc Ft. Brandy "Ms. B" Hambrick - I Know You See It (PO Clean Edit) -osk® (3:26)
11. Janet Jackson - So Excited -osk® (3:17)
12. Stone Sour - Through Glass -osk® (4:02)
13. Ying Yang Twins Feat. Wyclef Jean - Dangerous-(Clean) -osk® (4:22)
14. Goo Goo Dolls - Let Love In -osk® (4:14)
15. Fergie - Fergalicious-(Radio Edit) -osk® (3:47)
16. "Weird Al" Yankovic - White & Nerdy -osk® (2:50)
17. The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Face Down -osk® (3:10)
18. Gym Class Heroes - Cupid's Chokehold -osk® (4:00)
19. James Blunt - Goodbye My Lover (Radio Edit) -osk® (3:56)
20. Chingy Feat. Jermaine Dupri - Dem Jeans-(Radio Edit) -osk® (3:39)
21. JC Chasez - Until Yesterday -osk® (4:08)

   

 

•  Nokia N93

  Feature:

General	Network	UMTS / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900
	Announced	2006, April
	Status	Coming Soon

Size	Dimensions	118 x 55.5 x 28.2 mm, 133 cc
	Weight	180 g

Display	Type	TFT, 256K colors
	Size	240 x 320 pixels, 36 x 48 mm
		- Second 65K colors display (128 x 36 pixels) - Twist and rotating screen - Downloadable themes

Ringtones	Type	Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3
	Customization	Download
	Vibration	Yes

Memory	Phonebook	Yes
	Call records	Yes
	Card slot	miniSD, hot swap, 128 MB card included
		- 50 MB shared memory

Data	GPRS	Class 32, 107.2/64.2 kbps
	HSCSD	Yes (via PC dial-up)
	EDGE	Class 32, 296 kbps; DTM Class 11, 236.8 kbps
	3G	Yes, 384 kbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.0
	Infrared port	Yes
	USB	Yes, v2.0

Features	OS	Symbian OS 9.1, S60 3rd edition
	Messaging	SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
	Browser	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
	Games	Yes + Java downloadable
	Colors
	Camera	3.2 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, 3x optical zoom, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, video(VGA 30 fps), flash; secondary CIF video call camera
		- Video calling and download - UPnP technology - Java MIDP 2.0 - Push to talk - MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player - T9 - Stereo FM radio - TV out support - Voice command/memo - PIM including calendar, to-do list and printing - Photo/video editor - Integrated handsfree

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Po 1100 mAh (BP-6M)
	Stand-by	Up to 240 h
	Talk time	Up to 5 h

More Picture: #1  #2

source: www.gsmarena.com

 

•  C++BuilderX Mobile Edition

 

 

 

 

Drive productivity with a robust C++ development environment with timesaving tools, wizards, and GUI form and menu designers, built to simplify mobile application development, including “on-target” debugging and deployment of C++ applications. The intuitive development environment helps streamline the development process, enabling you to create better C++ code for mobile devices, faster. Developed in cooperation with industry-leading mobile device manufacturers, C++BuilderX Mobile Edition includes integrated support for market-leading mobile devices, in a flexible development environment. C++BuilderX 1.5 Mobile Edition adds true Rapid Application Development for Series 60 developers.

 

Download:

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