NEWS IN BRIEF: BBC Worldwide (the commercial subsidiary for the BBC) and the creators of Gran Turismo; with 40 episodes from the entire series to be put in a dedicated channel for Gran Turismo TV.

Also, fans of Top Gear will be happy to know that the entire Top Gear track will be recreated for GT5, and will be able to race on them.

Gran Turismo 5 is set to be released in 2008. The Gran Turismo line of games have been a success for Sony, with more than 47 million sold.

GAME REVIEW: Move over, Laura Croft! Nariko is Here!

A couple of weeks ago, Heavenly Sword became a part of the PS3’s new library. Many of the games we have been waiting for are slowly being released, giving gamers one less thing to complain about.

The plot is quite engaging and interesting and it’s the main reason why you’ll find yourself playing the game. Somewhere in Asia they don’t actually reveal (although it’s most likely Japan), you’ll meet Nariko. Nariko is a red-haired heroine with very strong traits. She was brought up as a warrior by her own father, Shen, who also happens to be the king of the clan. Shen trained her to be one of the most powerful combatants ever known. As protectors of the Heavenly Sword, they put a lot of sweat and effort into hiding the blade from the unwanted. However, Bohan, king of another tribe, felt the urge to brandish the powerful weapon and become the feared master of the lands. This will, inevitably, provoke a bloodthirsty war. Nariko will join the army and play a decisive role as the heroine who wields the Heavenly Sword and masters it to perfection. But things are not always as easy as they seem, and it will soon become a story of vengeance, pain, and blood; lots of blood.

Apple has finally launched details about the new operating system called Leopard. It will be launched on October 26 at 6pm. If you want it now, you can pre-order it from the Apple Store.

It will cost $158 (including GST) for a single user license and $245 (including GST) for a five-user license. The server edition will cost $598 (including GST) for a single user license and $1,199 (including GST) for a 10-client license.

However, people who got their Macs from October 1st will be able to receive an upgrade disk to Leopard for only $12.95 (and that includes me…yay!) It’s all part of their Up-To-Date scheme.

Minimum Requirements are 512MB of RAM, and any Mac that has Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4. To run server, you will need 1GB of RAM and at least 20GB of space. Full specs are here.

So there you have it… the long (and very, very painful) wait is now officially over!

NEWS IN BRIEF: AOL, as expected by many, have decided to let 20 percent of the workforce (or 10,000) to be let go. “Put simply, my vision for AOL is to build the largest and most sophisticated global advertising network while we grow the size and engagement of our worldwide audience,” CEO Randy Falco wrote in a letter to those who are to be redundant.

A Douglasville man has now found out how hot the iPod can be, and we are not making this up…

His old iPod nano caught on fire, leaving a burn hole from “his 15 seconds of flame”. “So I look down and I see flames coming up to my chest,” said Danny Williams to WSBTV, “I’m still kind of freaked out that after only a year and a half my iPod caught fire in my pocket.”

The iPod uses a lithium-ion battery - the same one that is being recalled by laptops for bursting into flames. In 2006, a major recall was done after it was found that the lithium-ion batteries made by Sony were able to combust into flames. Apple was one of the companies affected; as well as Toshiba, Acer and Lenovo.

Apple has said that they will replace the iPod.

Microsoft has removed that annoying so-called protection program Windows Geniune Advantage on the Internet Explorer 7 version for XP.

Kind of embarrassing when Microsoft has to give up on it’s ‘protection’ pride and give in to increase IE7’s market share. According to our statistics, more than 50% use Firefox.

IE6 still dominates most of IE’s share and is the only reason why IE’s market share is still on top, despite Firefox chipping away at it. Does this prove that most people using IE6 are using pirated versions of XP. We should also count the smart people who decided to not install it, skipped it when Microsoft Update told you to update it or just turned off Automatic Update.

You can read it’s announcement here (via APCMag.com).

One of the most talked about products, heading into the start of Digital Life, was Palm’s new compact smartphone, the Centro. While it is much thicker than devices such as the Motorola Q9 and Samsung Blackjack, the Centro does keep the other dimensions well within respectability, though it’s still unclear why Palm thinks it’s anything worth mentioning. In reality, the smaller device size creates a larger problem.

As an owner of the Samsung Blackjack, I already thought that keyboards on PDA styled devices shouldn’t get any smaller if they wished to remain useable. Apparently, Palm never realized this. The keyboard on the Centro is entirely too small to effectively type on. In order to hit only one button, I had to use the edge of my finger nail and, even then, it was tough. I can’t imagine how anyone can be expected to type out an email or use the included instant messaging application with any kind of efficiency. The buttons are too small and too close to each other. The only good thing about the keyboard is the responsiveness that one expects from the keys (when you can actually press one) on a Palm device.

Moving past the frustrating keyboard, one’s attention should be drawn to the screen and the Palm OS interface. Palm has finally increased their resolution to a slightly above standard 320*320. Unfortunately, the Palm OS UI does nothing to show off the beauty of the higher resolution display. The menus are nothing but a plain white background with basic icons consisting of few colors. I know, many of you may say that the UI shouldn’t matter as long as it’s useable and functional. That’s fine and dandy, but with every other device on the market showing off vibrant colors and crystal clear displays, it would have been nice to see a little “flash” from the functional operating system.

I only had a few minutes to test out a display model, but the device was responsive, more so than other smartphones on the market. The browser opened very quickly and the device never seemed to drag its feet while switching between menus. In this case, the lack of eye candy probably helps, so I have to eat my words a little.

All in all, the Centro has a great price point and has some giddy up behind it. However, the overly thick size and frustratingly tiny keyboard make it more of a chore to use than a pleasure. Palm is on the right track, but there’s work to be done. If they can manage to give the keyboard some space, one could easily look past the lack luster UI and find themselves with a very nice device at an even better price. Until they accomplish that, though, I simply cannot recommend the Centro to anyone looking to buy a smartphone.

View: Palm Centro

An online malware measuring tool, Panda Software’s Nanoscan tool, put the U.K. in the bottom spot last week, with only 8.1% of those scanned showing active malware. By a separate measure, that of ‘latent’ or inactive malware, however, the U.K. fared less well, reaching 20.7%. Top of the infection list for active malware was France (28.2%), Mexico (23.1%), Brazil (18%), the U.S. (17.8%), and Argentina (17.4%).

The figures appear to show very high levels of infection, but the results only rate those who visited the site and asked to be scanned, meaning these individuals would be expected to show a bias towards having infected PCs. The company has created its own global malware map from the data, which is collected from thousands of mostly consumer PCs every 15 minutes. Almost 8% of those scanned and who showed active threats also had anti-virus software installed.

News source: PC World

Asustek Computer plans to enable 1600MHz quad pumped processor system bus on its mainboards based on Intel X38 core-logic, whereas earlier it was rumoured that Intel only intends to enable such speed bin for Intel X48 platform. Given that the world’s largest maker of mainboards would hardly compromise stability of its products, it is unclear why Intel preps two platforms with generally similar features.

Asustek’s P5E, P5E3 Deluxe and Maximus Formula (Special Edition) motherboards, which are already listed at Asus’ web-site, will support processors with 1600MHz processor system bus (PSB) officially, despite of the fact that Intel has not formally introduced or announced desktop central processing units with such PSB speed-bin. According to unofficial information, processors with 1600MHz bus will be supported by Intel’s X48 core-logic due out early next year, though, it is uncertain whether enthusiasts bite it, provided that they have the same features on the Intel X38.

View: The full story
News source: Xbit Labs

Software giant Microsoft has secured a High Court payout from a UK distributor over the illegal importation of software. The settlement, for an undisclosed sum, was reached after Microsoft won its case against Pyramid Distribution for importing tens of thousands of copies of Microsoft software into the UK.

Microsoft claimed Pyramid’s actions have cost genuine distributors and resellers millions of pounds in lost turnover. Michala Wardell, UK head of anti-piracy at Microsoft, said: “Microsoft has been looking into Pyramid Distribution for the past couple of years and it has admitted to piracy. Because of the substantial number of products and the impact on resellers, action had to be taken. The firm was importing a range of products and was definitely looking to maximise its business illegally.”

View: The full story
News source: vnunet