Now, the one caveat here is that he did agree to the Terms of Use/Service agreement presented by EA, and in that agreement it probably mentioned somewhere that EA retains the right to disable the app at any time they see fit. From a legal perspective, they’re in the clear, but from an ethical perspective I’d say they’ve got some work to do. Of course, we can’t blame Apple for this by any means, but we can absolutely request that they do something to fix ridiculously long-winded and catch-filled Terms of Service on their App Store.

I’m just hoping they actually DO something about this, instead of sitting around saying “WELL, you DID sign a ToS agreement…”

I guess I’m a bit of a skeptic when it comes to the Wii U, but after playing around with it at E3 and seeing the abysmal name (the reason behind which is still a mystery to me), I couldn’t help but remain convinced that they wouldn’t have the core market, and the casual market would just keep playing the Wii because it’s cheap. Now it seems they may be able to re-grab the core, because high name developers are signing up for it and singing its praises- even developers who ripped on the Wii left and right.

The most recent addition to the list of developers who are excited for the Wii U is Epic Games, developers of Gears of War and Bulletstorm:

“I like the Wii U. I think E3 will be a big eye-opener for people. I played Batman: Arkham City on the Wii U and they are doing some really cool stuff with the controller. Do you remember the Zelda demo they had on it? Would you not buy a Wii U just to play that? Of course you would. That’s what Nintendo is all about. Their hardware is the software delivery service for their great content. That Zelda demo was gorgeous and we can do even more than that with Unreal Engine 3. I think it will do great.” – Epic Games’ VP Mark Rein

Epic aren’t the only ones who seem more interested in this than they did the Wii; MegaMan series creator Kenji Inafune also expressed a strong interest in developing for the platform:

“I can’t comment too much about it because I haven’t touched it yet, but whenever Nintendo comes out with something new, it’s always good. So I’m confident it must be impressive. If I get a chance, I always want to try out creating for a new platform. So I’m looking forward to that chance. The same thing could go for the Wii U because it’s part of the challenge in evolution, and it’s a challenge in motion control. It’s in that testing stage, so I’m really interested.”

With Epic on board, Capcom confirmed on board, Ubisoft making Assassin’s Creed, Rocksteady working on Arkham City, and Darksider’s 2 making its debut on Wii U, it’s looking better and better for Nintendo as things roll along. Sure, it may not be my favorite thing in the world that all these realistic, gritty games are gonna be coming, but I just won’t buy them and let the millions of people who enjoy them do just that.

I wonder if CM4 is going to make cases for that fat controller…

We’ve had ‘late April’ as the launch date for the white Q Card Case for a while. It’s about as ‘late April’ as we can get so you’re probably asking, “Where’s the White?” Well we have good news and bad news. The bad news: our official release date is now May 29th. The good news: that date won’t shift again as we’re literally making these as we type this post. More good news: we’re also launching two additional colors! More good news: the new colors will also launch May 29th. The final bit of good news: we’re giving you a 15% off coupon when it launches. Simply use coupon code ‘pearlwhite‘ when you order from cm4.com.

Certainly we wanted to make the product available as quickly as possible but had to ensure the product was perfected before we released it into the wild. We’ll be able to divulge more information and images of the colors very soon but just know that they’re coming and they look fantastic.

Don’t get too excited because these are just rumors for now, but if recent news is any indication we could be looking at an iPhone 5 release this fall. The latest in the string of findings and rumors that is leading me to this conclusion comes in the form of a supply shortage from a next-generation chip manufacturer that the upcoming iPhone is expected to use. Why does this indicate a new device? Well, anytime there’s an unexpected increase in demand from a company like Apple- and a subsequent shortage- it indicates they’re probably adding a new piece of tech to the table. They certainly wouldn’t have any reason to drastically increase supply of any older models because demand hasn’t increased for those, and according to estimates by various groups this matches up with what is believed to be the most likely launch date of the newest iPhone: August or September.

Another thing that popped into place just a couple of days ago was the listing of “iPhone 5 Home Buttons” on a Chinese supplier’s website, putting the items up for sale and showing an image that actually reveals a slight change in aesthetic from the 4S:

And here’s the 4S’ home button for comparison:

Mickey Mouse really has not been up to much lately if you disregard his fantastic gaming-revival ‘Epic Mickey’ which released on Wii last year. Prior to that, though, he really hasn’t been updated, changed, or brought into public spectacle more often than the occasional cameo in something like Kingdom Hearts. While he’ll be making an appearance in that game again soon, the real thing to be looking forward to is his return to Nintendo consoles with a sequel to ‘Epic Mickey’ coming out this fall.

The game is going to be developed for Wii first and foremost, and the port to Xbox and PS3 will be handled by an alternative studio (a rarity in this industry indeed), but specific details are scarce at this point. We do know it’ll be a two-player game (split-screen or assumedly online if you so desire) and will feature Mickey and Oswald as the two playable characters, but there’s no word on how long it’ll be, what other characters may be featured, or whether or not it will make its way to Nintendo’s forthcoming console, the Wii U.

Regarding a Wii U port, game lead Warren Spector said that “whatever system you have, Wasteland will be there, Mickey Mouse will be there, the fun of Disney Epic Mickey: The Power of Two will be there.”.

Some of you may think that this quote means it’s a certainty that we’ll see a port, but recall that Wii U will be backwards compatible with Wii titles- and so he could simply be referring to the fact that you’ll be able to play it on Wii U via the Wii version. Who knows?

Now, that’s not all the news about it though. A 3DS title called ‘Epic Mickey: The Power of Illusion’ is a spin-off game that is going to make its way to Nintendo’s handheld in the form of a 2D (err… 3D?) platformer. It’s a sequel to 1990′s “Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse”, which was an incredibly well received game both by critics and gamers. Take that into consideration, 3DS-owning platforming fans, because you are getting spoiled rotten this year.

Before I say anything else, let me make it clear that this technically qualifies as a rumor. The evidence come from a review of the new iPad where the reviewer states that he is aware of an internal Apple project in which they are working on a physical controlling device for their latest tablet. The exact quote is as follows:

“I know of an internal Apple project to bring a physical controller to market, but whether or not it will ever see the light of day remains to be seen.” – AnandTech Review of the ‘new’ iPad

My bets are placed on the idea that they absolutely are developing a controller, but- like the review says- it may never see the light of day. You see, when a company makes a product, whether it be a tablet or a gaming console of a new electric toothbrush, they have a research and development team who are (hopefully) working around the clock to find new ways to improve their inventions. In all of my years covering Nintendo, I’ve seen patents and heard humors for football-shaped Wii remotes, toy horses you can ride while playing games, and an exercise bike you hook up to gauge physical activity. None of these things saw the light of day, but they were all “in development”.

So, don’t get excited and take everything with a grain of salt, but in my book I’d say there’s a very good chance this is true, and maybe half again as good a chance that- if they finish it- we’ll see it released in the next year or so. Look forward to it, iGamers!

It’s always frustrating trying to find iPhone news to share with you guys, because it usually turns out that there isn’t one particular story interesting enough to warrant me getting paid to write solely about it. Sure, I could do three different posts about three different things here, but would that make me feel conscientiously clean? Getting overpaid for under-working? No!

Well, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. But I am way off track here. I have news to get to you!

My first piece of news is for those of you that love stories about a boy wizard who meets a giant and fights off the evil. No, not the straight-to-DVD classic  “The Mystical Adventures of Billy Owens”; I’m talking about Harry Potter. You see, those seven books have finally, after months of weird  legal boredom behind closed doors, been released as eBooks, which means you can read them on your iPhone or iPad, or another suitably decent device that can read eBooks. The entire collection will run you $60, which is actually quite a great deal given the cost of physical copies these days, and you can pick them up right this second.

Nextly, nothing too special; just a video of a robot dog with an iPhone face:

Of course, like all good things this magnificent creation is only available in Japan as of yet. Hopefully us North Americans can get our hands on our very own less-than-a-dog pet soon.

And lastly, how would this be an iPhone post if I didn’t talk about Angry Birds? The latest game in that series, titled “Angry Birds Space”, came out just about a week ago now, and in its first three days it managed to sell an incredible 10 million copies. Congratulations to everyone involved! Though, I don’t think that those numbers quite break the record for “Highest selling thing ever made by a human”, but it’s gotta be dang close. Probably right behind housing and Hostess Cupcakes.

A fantastically insightful and interesting poll has been published by CNBC suggesting that more than half of the households in the United States have at least one Apple product. It was taken earlier this month over the phone and covered 836 households, but despite the fact that (in my opinion anyway) this is a statistically low sample size, they’re saying it has a margin of error of just 3.6 percent. Pretty good for something that gives us a lot of interesting info, eh? Here are some more insights as to what we’ve learned from it:

- Income level is a strong indicator of Apple product ownership: 28% of those making under $30k/year own one, while 77% of those making more than $75k/year do.

- 63% of those aged 18-34 and 35-49 own Apple products, while only 50% of the 50-64 group do, and 26% among those 65 and older.

- 61% of households with children own an Apple product, versus 48% in those without kids.

- The average home in the South owns 1.2 Apple products, the smallest in any region. The average household in the country owns 1.6 devices.

The thing I find particularly fascinating is that 26% of people 65 actually own an Apple product, which is much higher than I thought. I suppose it just goes to show that the accessibility and appeal of Apple products breaks down age, background, and location barriers.

But not economic barriers. Shit’s expensive.

Via CNBC’s All America Economic Survey 2012

Via MacRumors

It was said that when update 5.1 hit the iPhone 4S’, it would improve the battery life of the device fairly significantly. I don’t have a 4S myself, but talking to people who do, apparently the battery on them is pretty abysmal if you want to do streaming and web browsing to any significant extent. That seems to have recently changed, however, because according to several people on Reddit.com, CultOfMac, and various other websites, the performance of their iPhone batteries has increased pretty significantly since the update.

Some users are reporting little to no change, but most have said that- while they originally were able to stay in standby for 10 hours or do heavy browsing for 6-7- they can now stay in standby for upwards of 20 hours and do heavy browsing for around 10. That’s a pretty big jump for just a software update, and I’ve gotta hand it to Apple for listening to people and doing something about it fairly quickly given the circumstances.

No official word on how this effects iPads and other iPhone models, but some people across the internet are saying that there’s a noticeable- if slightly less drastic- increase in the lifespan of those devices as well. Not too shabby, Apple. Not too shabby at all.

As many people knew, last week Apple unveiled the latest iPad, and unveil it they did. It took place during a press conference at 1PM EST where CEO Tim Cook (among others) talked about everything from the success of iOS devices to Siri’s Japanese release to how the iPad outclasses any other tablet on the market- a notion you’d be hard pressed to disagree with. After a lot of expected rambling on how awesome his company is, it was time to take a look at the next generation tablet for ourselves, and the rumors we heard turned out to be (mostly) true.

Firstly, the iPad 3 will indeed have retina display, meaning images will be projected right onto the retina of the eye, and if my understanding of the technology is complete, things will now be incredibly sharp and displayed at such a high resolution that our eyes will be quite literally unable to distinguish between individual pixels, something that not even the highest end gaming consoles have. Another thing that it measures up to the highest gaming consoles on is its graphics card, which is something called an A5X quad core chip. I have no idea what this means, but I guess it means we’ll have way more power to devote to graphics on a screen built for the sharpest images possible.

Now, if you don’t care much about visuals and technicalities, you might be excited to hear that they’ve updated the camera as well, taking the old one and replacing it with a 5 megapixel iSight camera that includes backlight illumination, 1080p video recording, and image stabilization. As the conference continued, it was also revealed that the iPad 3 will allow you to speak into the HUD keyboard and have it translate to text, rather than having to type it out without tactile response. Certainly could be incredibly useful for taking notes or sending e-mails much more quickly!

Now, what good is any of this if it isn’t fast? Thankfully, that’s covered as well. The iPad 3 will support 4G LTE, which really is just a fancy name for “it will be faster than 3G”. You can download pictures and videos faster than ever, surf the web on the fly without needing a hotspot near you, and pretty much do everything the iPad 2 could do only faster. Hey, I’m all for the speed. Who isn’t? Additionally, you won’t be cut out for battery life either, because Apple is promising 10 hours of battery life on the thing when used at full capacity. At least, I assume. None of this will come cheap, unfortunately, as the lowest price is $500 for a 16GB model, and the highest is $700 for the 64GB model. Not to terrible consider iPad 2 pricing, but it’s also nothing that someone like me will be buying anytime soon.

Last piece of news for you: It’s not actually called the iPad 3. It’s called the “new iPad”, which I think is terribly smart because it doesn’t really innovate or change enough to be called the next complete entry in the iPad family. I’m going to leave all the ‘iPad 3′ references in this post because it’s easier to follow that way, but bear in mind that it isn’t officially named this.

Via ABC News