Tekken fans rejoice. Fonehome confirmed today that Namco’s Tekken will soon be available for iPhone users. It’s in the final stages of development and that’s all the information we have up till now. No screenshots, no posters, nothing.

One can only wonder how it’ll look like, if it’ll be a rendition of the classic or something more adapted with the iPhone. No specific release date yet, neither will it be making an appearance at the Game Developers Conference either, according to Fonehome.

Scanty information aside, you can be rest assured that Tekken will hit the App Store…eventually.

[Via Gizmodo]

via – Appleinsider

Also check out:

iPad capable of making emergency calls!

Shortage in iPad inventories could delay launch

Apple iPad to be sold at Best Buy and Other Locations

After the successful launch of Windows 7, Microsoft announced on Friday that Office 2010 will be officially launched at an event planned for May 12.

Microsoft has arranged an event on May 12 for the release of its much expected product, where they will make Office 2010 publically available for Enterprises with Volume License agreements. Consumers will not be able to buy this product until June.

Another interesting news is that customers who purchase Office 2007 and activate it between March 5, 2010 to September 30, 2010 will be offered a free upgrade to Office 2010. Copies will be offered online and via download, at no additional cost.

Consumers of Office Home and Student 2007 will receive a free copy of Office Home and Student 2010, while consumers of Office Standard 2007 and Office Basic 2007 will be entitled for a free copy of Office Home and Business 2010. On the other hand, consumers of Office Small Business 2007, Office Professional 2007 or Office Ultimate 2007 will be entitled for a free copy of Office Professional 2010.

So, it is very important that if you purchase any copy of Office 2007, make sure that it is eligible for MS-Office 2010 upgrade.

[via tech-exclusive]

A Swedish Apple fan sent an email to Steve jobs this week asking him about the possibility of iPad tethering with the iPhone. Steve Jobs did reply to the guy’s email, saying “No”.

Here’s the full email that has been sent:

I’ll keep it short.
I’m Jezper from Sweden, a long time Apple fan, currently about to replace the very last computer at home with a brand spanking new iMac i7. I’m also awaiting the release of the iPad. However, I have one question:
Will the wifi-only version somehow support tethering thru my iPhone?
Two devices, based on the same OS, with already built-in technology to share one data plan suggests a secondary contract could possibly be redundant.
From the look of your keynote, where the iPad sits well between my MacBook Pro and my iPhone, I was hoping the three of them could interact as seamless as possible.
All the best,
Jezper Söderlund[a famous DJ in his own right]

Steve Jobs replies, as usual, in his short phrase style saying:

"No".

Sent from my iPhone

So, for everyone who had the same question, here’s your answer. The iPad won’t be able to tether with the iPhone. It really could have been a great feature, people could buy the WiFi version, and if they had an iPhone, they could tether the data connection it gets with the iPad, so you could basically have access to the internet on your iPad. The benefits? Saving money by purchasing the cheaper WiFi version, rather then the more expensive 3G version, as well as having a bigger screen for internet browsing.

[via RedmondPie]

Remember the Microsoft Courier? In September last year, when rumors of the Apple “Tablet” were sky high, emerged the tablet from Microsoft that made us forget about the Apple “Tablet”  for a while. Lets go back in time, shall we? Gizmodo revealed to us the Microsoft Booklet. A multitouch, dual screen device that came with a video and some photos for us to drool over.

After a long wait, Engadget has exclusively posted lots more photos and a video for us to drool over! According to Engadget’s source, the Courier is meant to function as a “digital journal”, measures 5×7 when closed, is 1 inch thick and weighs a little over a pound. It’s said to run on the same OS as ZuneHD, Pink and Windows Mobile 7 series.

As rumoured already, the device will have multitouch support, plus input via stylus writing and drawing. It will have a built-in camera and a headphone jack and will possibly be Microsoft’s e-book device. According to Engadget, everything entered into the device will have a website that will display your entered data in a blog-like format. The rumored launch date is “Q3/Q4” whereas there as no pricing details as yet.

The video below demonstrates the various ways a user can interact with the UI. Head over to Engadget’s photo gallery to see old and new photos of the interface.

[Via Engadget]

Putting all the rumors to rest, Apple has officially announced that the iPad will start shipping April 3rd. Although its a slight delay from what Apple originally said at the unveiling of the device, it doesn’t make too much of a difference. And guess what? Pre-orders start next week March 12th!

For the time being, only the WiFi models are available for US customers starting April 3rd and the 3G models will be available late April. For customers outside the US (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK), both the WiFi and WiFi + 3G models will be available simultaneously in late April. If you’re not a resident of the afore mentioned countries, then you’ll have to wait till “later this year”.

The iBooks app will be available for free download from the App Store from April 3rd as well. The iPad will be available in the US via the Apple Store, retail Apple stores and select authorized resellers.

All you need to know about Apple’s iPad specifications

Apple iPad starting at $499! – Pricing details.

Quick overview of the new iPad apps

As if a few leaked internal documents were not enough to convince most mobile developers out there, Charlie Kindel, the Microsoftee in whose hands lies the future of application development for Windows Phones, has confirmed that development for Windows Phone 7 Series will be done using .NET, Silverlight and XNA. This is good news from Microsoft because as I said a few days ago, they have an uphill battle against the App Store.

According to Charlie:

…one of our principles was “to build upon the shoulders of giants; where possible integrate instead of create.” It won’t come as a surprise to many to learn that the Windows Phone 7 developer experience builds upon the following GIANTS (among others):

• .NET
• Silverlight
• XNA platform
• Microsoft’s developer tools
• Web 2.0 standards

I bet things will look bright for Windows Phone 7 Series thanks to Silverlight and XNA, for both rich web applications and great gaming. We all know that these are the basic pillars of Apple’s App Store, and main attractions of the iPhone as a mobile device. If Microsoft can succeed in luring developers to their new platform at MIX10, even if they have to pay them to shift focus, it will be a huge win for them. Companies are already abandoning their efforts for Windows Mobile 6.5 in anticipation of Windows Phone 7 Series.

Ever since the App Store became the benchmark for mobile applications distribution, this will be the first time another platform will actually compete with the experience that it provides. Android Market has been there, but it doesn’t even hold a candle against the App Store in terms of both quality and experience.

Come what may, MIX10 will decide the future for Microsoft’s next gen mobile platform. Apple better have something up its sleeves for iPhone 4G since the competitors are closing in sharply. This is evident with iPhone’s market share starting to decrease and Android’s increasing slowly. But if history has taught us anything, we know Apple will sue its competitors as soon as they are able to catch up.

Also check out:

Microsoft reveals first Windows Phone 7 Series Handset

Apple had announced that it plans to release the iPad at the end of March or early April  and now we are hearing rumors about the release date of the iPad being March 26. Apple hasn’t provided any official information about the launch, but people close to sources have heard that like the iPhone launch, the iPad will be go on sale possibly at 6:00 PM on March 26, 2010. They also say that people who will line up for the iPad on launch day will also receive a special gift.

Last week, Peter Misek, an analyst at Canaccord Adams, reported that there was an "unspecified production problem" at the headquarters of iPad manufacturer Hon Hai Precision. Misek predicated the number of iPads available at launch would be 300,000 or less; he also speculated that the iPad might not be available to US consumers until April. Because of the limited stock of iPad the company decided to release iPad in two models, a Wi-Fi version and a 3G version.

It was recently found that the iPad 3G will be capable of making emergency calls although it’s not expected to be available until April or May. The rumored date of March 26 is only for the Wi-Fi model.

[via PC World]

Recently, we wrote about Microsoft’s upcoming project, Mobile Surface, which was introduced at the TechFest 2010 in Redmond. Microsoft demonstrated another cool project at TechFest 2010 called OneAlbum that uses facial recognition and event-matching technology to automatically retrieve photos that would interest you from your social networks and your friends’ online photo albums and add them to yours.

Microsoft’s Principal research program manager, Eyal Krupka said,

“Today, my album refers to a collection of photos I have taken. But many photos relevant to me—such as photos of me or my children—are in my friends’ albums. OneAlbum automatically finds relevant photos in my friends’ albums on social networks or in shared albums, brings them to my album, and shows them side-by-side with the photos I’ve taken. OneAlbum uses breakthrough technology to recognize which photos interest me by analyzing my own album.”

Furthermore, she said that the novel, unsupervised algorithm behind OneAlbum was tested on real large-scale albums including tens of thousands of photos and achieved accuracy rates as high as 90 percent. Looks like it will be the end of manually tagging pictures in different social networks like Facebook, when you can find all of your photos with facial recognition.

A video has also been posted on Microsoft research website which shows OneAlbum in action.

via – All About Microsoft

Windows 7 has an excellent built-in platform and API which can help third party developers to create native applications for Windows 7 that are location-aware. However, the only mistake Microsoft has made with ‘Location and Sensors’ in Windows 7 is that they did not include any geolocation service provider.

But the scenario has changed now. Long Zheng of istartedsomething teamed up with Rafael Rivera of Within Windows to create a new Windows Sensor called Geosense for Windows, that connects the location platform of Windows 7 with geolocation service providers and works like a GPS system. Instead of communicating with satellites (not many PCs have GPS hardware), it simply gathers some metrics including your IP address, Wi-Fi triangulation or access points to determine the location. Geosense uses Google Location Services to provide location information.

The beauty of this Windows Sensor is that developers can create location aware Windows 7 applications on top of it. And did we mention it’s free?

Thanks to Geosense, we can expect a Foursquare app and the likes very soon for Windows 7!

Download Geosense for Windows

via – istartedsomething