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Custom ringtones are coming.
If there’s one request we’ve heard over and over since launching Windows Phone last year, it’s this: More ringtones, please! I’m the program manager for the “sound experience” on the phone—everything from ringtones and alarms to alerts and key clicks. Today I wanted to take a minute to tell you about the ringtone-related changes in store for Mango, the next version of Windows Phone arriving this fall.
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The Supreme Court has finally ruled on the constitutionality of the California law (Brown v. EMA) that would have banned the sale of violent video games to minors.
The court struck down the law 7-2 using the First Amendment as the reasoning. Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion, with Justices Thomas and Breyer in dissent.
"The act does not comport with the First Amendment," opens the opinion's syllabus. "Video games qualify for First Amendment protection. Like protected books, plays, and movies, they communicate ideas through familiar literary devices and features distinctive to the medium. And 'the basic principles of freedom of speech . . . do not vary' with a new and different communication medium."
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As promised, Redbox has rolled out game rentals nationwide.
In April, Redbox said it would start offering game rentals in 21,000 of its 27,000 kiosks this month. The company is renting out a range of titles for the Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3, including the recently launched Duke Nukem Forever and last year's blockbuster hit Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Redbox has launched a full online listing of games available to customers. Those who find something they like can reserve a title from home and pick it up at their chosen Redbox location.
Redbox is charging $2 per day for its game rentals. It currently rents DVDs and Blu-ray discs for as little as $1 per day and $1.50 per day, respectively.
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The Spanish police said Friday that they had arrested three suspected computer hackers in connection with recent cyberattacks on Sony’s PlayStation Network as well as corporate and government Web sites around the world.
The arrests have dismantled the local leadership of the shadowy international network of computer hackers known as Anonymous, which has claimed responsibility for a wide variety of attacks, the National Police said in a statement.
(further)Sony has estimated that the hacker attacks will cost it at least 14 billion yen, or $173 million, in damages, including information technology spending, legal costs, lower sales and free offers to lure back customers.
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•Multitouch five-inch OLED display
•Dual analog sticks
•Sixaxis motion detection
•Rear touchpad
•Enough hardware to run the amazing Uncharted software being shown live at the press conference
•3G and WiFi models
•Social tools
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Sony is offering a bundle that includes the 24" 3D TV, a pair of 3D glasses, a copy of Resistance 3, and a six foot HDMI cable for $499. Extra pairs of glasses cost $69.99 a pop.
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Coming later this year in Mango is more native support of Xbox LIVE features in the Games Hub like:
· See your played games and unlocked/locked Achievements
· Compare Achievements with other Xbox LIVE members
· Search your list of friends to see who is online and what they are doing
· See your Xbox LIVE messages and Send/Accept/Reject friend requests
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For over a year now, Game Informer has offered a digital subscription to the magazine that was simple in design. With the most recent June issue we went back to the drawing board and started building digital issues from the ground up, with some added digital bonuses.
From exclusive content to interactive pages, the new Game Informer Digital magazine is all about an easy reading experience as it is created to be native to your computer screen and take advantage of all the things a computer-based digital edition can offer. Like any project however, we managed to make the product before we had all the bells and whistles in place. So if you are interested in getting a Game Informer Digital subscription you will need to visit your local Gamestop until we can make digital subscriptions available online.
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Starting May 22, students who buy a new PC for $699 or more will receive a free Xbox 360 4GB console, the software giant said in a blog post today. The offer is available to online shoppers who buy a PC from Dell.com, HP.com, or Microsoft's online store. Those who want to head to a retail outlet can find the deal at Best Buy or Microsoft's stores.
In order for students to get the free Xbox 360, they will need to have .edu e-mail address at the time of purchase. If they don't have a .edu e-mail address, they can go to a retail store and present their student IDs.
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It appears that the new Xbox LIVE update, which will introduce support for the new XGD3 disk format, might prevent a very small number of Xbox 360 owners from playing retail game discs.
The XGD3 format will allow for additional storage space on a game disc, and will provide additional levels of copy production.
The Xbox LIVE Spring update will be rolled out between May 19 to May 30.
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Sony has announced the PlayStation Network has begun restoration today. The PSN will be restored in a series of phases with phase one restoring access to the PSN, online gaming for the PS3 and PSP, access to Netflix, Hulu, MLB.com and PlayStation Home. The remaining features, such as the ability to make purchases from the PSN Store will return soon.
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AMD Catalyst 10.10c Hotfix Features:
* OpenGL 4.1 beta support
* Support for the new Morphological Anti-Aliasing feature
* Dead Rising 2 – Crossfire profile (Resolves negative scaling)
* Crossfire Performance Improvement for:
o Metro 2033
o F1 2011 - (Direct X9 version)
o Fallout New Vegas
* Performance optimizations for systems with an AMD Radeon™ HD 6870 and AMD Radeon HD 6850 series of graphics products installed
o Aliens versus Predator performance enhancements
o Star Craft 2 performance enhancements
o OpenGL performance enhancements – gains can be seen in Prey, Quake Wars: Enemy Territories, and Heaven v2