Electricpig

Kindle iPad app incoming, Kindle for Mac app out now

Mic Wright — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:30:34 +0000

Kindle books are headed to the iPad with a Kindle iPad app. Amazon confirmed that a Kindle iPad app is on the way while announcing the launch of the Kindle for Mac app.

Amazon first promised a Kindle for Mac app in October 2009. Now it has finally arrived with similar functionality to what we’ve got used to with the Kindle iPhone, Kindle Blackberry app and Kindle PC app.

Kindle for Mac will sync with other devices. If you read a Kindle book on your Mac, you’ll be able to pick up where you left off on your iPhone or Kindle when you’re on the move.

Kindle for Mac is available for free now from the Amazon website. You’ll need Mac OS X 10.5 or above to start reading. Full text search and the ability to add and edit notes in Kindle for Mac will be added later though you can read notes and annotations you’ve added on other devices.

While the Kindle iPhone app will work on the iPad, a native Kindle iPad app would be far easier to use. Apple has said that you’ll be able to sync ePub files through iTunes into its iBooks app but how it will deal with competition from a Kindle iPad app remains to be seen.

With the iPad arriving in April, Amazon reminding us that a Kindle iPad app is in the works suggests we could be seeing it around the same time. And don’t forget there’s those rumours of an iPad-fighting Kindle 2 to consider.

Out now | £free | Amazon

BBC iPlayer: 30 shows watched a second

Ben Sillis — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:00:09 +0000

The BBC iPlayer stats have just been announced for February, and they’re nothing short of sensational. As well as a major milestone passed on consoles, the figure reveal another phenomenal fact too: the BBC is serving up TV shows to visitors at a rate of almost 30 new requests a second, with more than a million people playing catch up each and every single day.

According to the BBC’s new figures, out today, BBC iPlayer use is up 81 percent on February 2009, with 116.4million requests in total from 1.4m people per day, and 68.7m for TV programmes overall. Auntie breaks it own even further, revealing that 2.5m TV show requests are now made on BBC iPlayer every day, which means that people are whacking that play button 28.9 times per second.

BBC iPlayer lands on BlackBerry

BBC iPlayer use away from desktops and laptops has also grown, with Nintendo Wii BBC iPlayer views now making up four percent of all calls. Even more impressively, the BBC iPlayer Wii Channel has now been installed on more than one million consoles across the country.

Wondering what the most watched show in all of this was? That’d be EastEnders Live. Impressive stuff, Beeb, but can we please have BBC iPlayer on Xbox 360 now too?

Out Now | £free | BBC

Natal slammed in new Playstation Move video

Mic Wright — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:30:11 +0000

Natal gets picked on in a new Playstation Move video ad which also takes some swings at the Nintendo Wii. It seems Sony is feeling pretty confident about Playstation Move but will it nix Natal?

In the video presented by Sony VP Kevin Butler, we see Playstation Move in the future, November 2010 to be exact, and guess what? In Sony’s time travelling adventure, the Playstation Move is ultra-popular and pwning its rivals including Natal and the Nintendo Wii.

While Butler doesn’t mention Natal by name, he manages to do it down in his snarky commentary. Showing someone playing a first person shooter, he sneers:

“It’s also got what we in the future call buttons, which turn out to be pretty important to those handful of millions of people who enjoy playing shooters, platformers, well, anything that doesn’t involve catching a big red ball.”

That seems like a pretty unambiguous dig at Natal but the Playstation Move cheerleader gets even more direct: “C’mon, who wants to pretend their hand is a gun. What is this, third grade?”

Given that Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg has poo-pooed the Playstation Move in his promotion of Natal, it’s fair for Butler to strike back. But with Natal and Playstation Move both due in time for Christmas, which one do you think will win out?

Due Autumn | £TBC | Sony

Techie Breakie: Virgin Media Android phones, iTunes in the cloud and Nokia’s future plans

Ben Sillis — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:00:54 +0000

It’s the start of another fine Thursday, but before the headlines start rolling in once more, take a pause to catch up with everything you might have missed overnight. Read on for all the stories, rounded up right here in the lunchtime lowdown.

In mobile news, Nokia’s boss let slip the company’s plans for the future in a frank interview, while RIM finally opened up push notications for all BlackBerry apps, and Virgin Media scooped up a gaggle of new Google phones, including the HTC Desire.

In gaming, Sim City Deluxe was announced for the iPhone, while Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for PSP will be delayed, and to promote the latest Splinter Cell, Sam Fisher is now tweeting.

Finally, online, Spotify’s boss reckons an iTunes cloud streaming service is inevitable.

Still want more news? You know where to get it: over on the homepage, right now!

Nokia boss hints at Snapdragon super fast phone

Ben Sillis — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:30:35 +0000

A Nokia phone with the blazing 1GHz Snapdragon chip inside could be on the cards, according to Nokia head honcho Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. Is it a MeeGo mobile? And what else is ol’ OPK planning? Read on for the answers.

In an interview with Business Week this week, Nokia CEO Kallasvuo talked about the Finnish giant’s place in the smartphone landscape, as well as what hardware to expect in future. When asked if Nokia was planning to introduce a phone with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip, he declined to comment, but then dropped the juicy morsel that “Qualcomm definitely is a potential partner going forward. The companies did fight a long time in court, and now we see them as a potential partner.”

Nokia: N97 a “tremendous disappointment”

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor is the secret sauce behind several recent power house phones, including the Google Nexus One and HTC HD2, and it could certainly make whatever operating system Nokia might use on top of it (Symbian, Maemo or MeeGo, say) zing. And zing future Nokia flagship phones will have to: Kallasvuo also admitted that the company has to “move even faster. We have to transform the company even faster”, in response to surging interest in iPhone and Android.

Rumours of a high end Nokia phone have been on the backburner for months now, so even if a successor to the Nokia N97 or N900 doesn’t have a Snapdragon chip, we’re eager to see what Nokia’s plans to regain the initiative are. Bring on Symbian 3!

Out TBC | £TBC | Nokia (Via Business Week)

Virgin Media set to show free football?

Ben Sillis — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:00:51 +0000

Virgin Media could offer Premier League football at no extra cost, according to a new report. If an upcoming watchdog decision goes in its favour, the Sky rival could absorb the cost of Sky Sports channels into its current packages, and BT Vision might just do likewise.

London business publication City AM reports that both Virgin Media and BT Vision are considering showing Premier League football matches for free to their current TV, telephone and broadband subscribers.

Virgin Media V HD Box is 3D ready

The move hinges on an Ofcom review due to publish its finding in a fortnight, which the paper reports is likely to lower the price Sky can charge its rivals for its sports package. Virgin Media might then move to include Sky Sports channels without passing on the cost in a package including its TV, telephone and broadband, City AM claims.

Should that happen, the landscape of pay TV could be changed entirely, with customers tempted to switch to the package and the operator with the cheapest way to watch coveted Premier League games. We’ll let you know as soon as anything is made official, but watch this space: the TV wars are really heating up.

Out TBC | £TBC | Virgin Media (Via City AM)

BlackBerry apps: instant updates go universal

Ben Sillis — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:30:38 +0000

The first BlackBerry apps to get push notifications launched a little under a year ago, but now at long last, the service has gone universal. Now, any new BlackBerry apps can use the tech to deliver updates even when the program is closed, using tech similar to RIM’s email delivery. What does that mean for you? All the headlines, tweets, pokes and other online acts you can handle!

Until today, only BlackBerry apps from select Research In Motion partners (like music download store 7digital) have been able to take advantage of push technology, which delivers and alerts you to updates within apps, even when they’re not running in the background. As of right now, RIM’s opened the floodgates, and developers can make use of the tech for any new BlackBerry apps they craft, for free, or with extra bells and whistles for a price.

Best free BlackBerry apps: top 10

That means that over the next few months, BlackBerry apps could become much more productive, and if you rely on any heavily, not needing to leave them on in the background all the time could save you plenty of battery life (The Facebook BlackBerry app is a prime example) too.

It’s also great news for future Twitter BlackBerry apps, which have to constantly update with a large amount of new tweets. Expect to see the move bear fruit soon, and if you’re interested in having a crack, RIM’s got the software you need ready to go.

Out Now | £varies | BlackBerry

Sim City Deluxe for iPhone incoming!

Ben Sillis — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:00:18 +0000

Sim City Deluxe for iPhone is on its way to the App Store. It’s been more than a year since the management game’s first outing on the iPhone, but EA’s been spent the time beavering away and boosting up the sequel: read on for what we know so far.

It’s been a full year since EA last issued an update to SimCity for iPhone, but the gaming giant has now revealed that a sequel, Sim City Deluxe for iPhone, is in the works, and expected to go on sale in Summer.

The Sims 3 headed to mystery console

We’ve not been able to gleam many details on improvements and additions in Sim City Deluxe, but based on the images EA has released to us, the UI appears to have been overhauled, and you can expect to play in cities based on London, Tokyo, Cairo and Paris, complete with essential landmarks like Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower.

It’s also worth noting that since the previous edition launched, the iPhone 3GS has landed, with more graphical horsepower than the 3G model. Could Sim City Deluxe for iPhone offer boosted graphics with Apple’s latest blower? We’ll let you know as soon as we get any more details.

Out Summer | £TBC | EA Mobile

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker delayed

Ben Sillis — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:30:22 +0000

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was set to creep on to shop shelves in May, but it’s proved so stealthy that Konami has had to give us word of a delay. Whip out your calendar and read on to mark off the new launch date for the next game in the epic saga.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the next chapter in Hideo Kojima’s series, was set to ship for PSP and PSPgo on 28 May, but a slip of a few weeks means it now won’t be available in the UK until 18 June. That’s not a Duke Nukem Forever length wait, admittedly, but could clash with the World Cup if you’re an avid gamer and a footie fan. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will however launch 10 days earlier in North America, on 8 June.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker new gameplay video

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker takes place after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and sees you take the reigns as Naked Snake in 1974, during the Cold War. The game will also allow for multiplayer online through a PS3.

Out 18 June | £TBC | Konami

Steve Jobs: the sitcom? Borat director and Fake Steve Jobs team up

Mic Wright — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:00:35 +0000

Steve Jobs is already the subject of a theatrical monologue aka Steve Jobs: the play. Now the man behind the satirical blog, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, and a novel based on it, is teaming up with Borat director Larry Charles to work on a sitcom called iCon with a fictional Silicon Valley CEO at its heart. It all sounds rather familiar…

While Steve Jobs is not explicitly the inspiration for iCon, Newsweek’s Dan Lyons, the man behind Fake Steve Jobs, has made a lucrative second career of parodying him.

We’d be very surprised if iCon, with its iPod, iPad and iPhone mimicking title, doesn’t take liberally from the myths and legends that surround Steve Jobs.

Charles, who was also a producer of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, understandably didn’t mention Steve Jobs in his statement on the planned half-hour sitcom.

Charles says he wants iCon to be “a modern Citizen Kane. A scabrous satire on Silicon Valley and its most famous citizen.”

iCon has been commissioned by US cable channel Epix and Media Rights Capital but there’s no details on when it will arrive. Somehow we doubt that Steve Jobs will find space for it on his Apple TV.

Due TBC | £TBC | Epix (via NYT)