Posts Tagged ‘phone’
Nintendo Says Mobile Gaming No Threat
Many of us can remember our first cellphones; not quite the gigantic monstrosities that are parodied in anything related to the early 90s but still sizeable pieces of technology with monochrome screens and large pixels. My first cellphone had an Othello game that I played many times, but since that time they’ve come a long ways. With more and more complex phones like the iPhone some are expecting the mobile phone gaming market to blow up, and others are expecting it’ll drive existing handhelds out of demand.
Most of the people making these predictions though either have a vested interest in saying so (like working for Apple) or aren’t involved in the industry (business analysts). Nintendo has insisted that they’re not concerned about the mobile gaming industry, saying that they in no way designed the DSi as a competitor for the iPhone or other cellphone gaming devices.
David Yarnton, general manager of Nintendo UK said that in designing the system the company left out many features they could have included, planning on keeping with their approach of letting the software sell systems. “We could have added lots of things, but then you become a jack of all trades, and a master of none. One of the things we are really honest about is that we stay faithful to our roots, of being a games company. The most important criterion is to make sure that what we’re offering can do the best games.”
He’s also warning people already that systems will be in short supply come this holiday season.
Sony Ericsson Not to Make PSP Phones
Sony Corp. has denied the use of its PlayStation brand in future Sony Ericsson phones. That means we won’t see a PSP Phone soon although we’d love to get one. And Sony should really consider getting its PSP magic out there in the phone business. Nokia has more and more N-Gage games coming out for its smartphones while the iPhone and the iPhone touch have great potential for gaming.
Sony Ericsson has presented the PSP Phone idea in December but Sony doesn’t seem ready to share one of its most famous brands. A Sony Ericsson spokesman said that
In the past, we have been keen that our product proposition lives up to brand promise, and we feel at the moment the technical specs are not high enough to put such a prestigious brand on a phone.
That’s a nice way to present Sony’s denial. But let’s not forget that neither Sony nor Sony Ericsson aren’t doing that well right now. Maybe a fresh product like a PSP Phone will cover some of their losses.
via mobiletoday
iPhone Getting (Real) Games
Wouldn’t it be great if the iPhone browser had Flash support? That way you’d be able to play tons of simple 2D games from essentially anywhere in the world. Or better yet, what if it could play full 3D games that we see on consoles. Impossible, right? Well, apparently it’s not. Apple recently held a presentation on a new SDK (System Development Kit) for developers to use to create applications on the iPhone. As the presentation shows, the iPhone is capable of far more than it would seem at first glance. For example, although it hasn’t been fully exploited yet, the iPhone is capable of full, real-time, 3D rendering using a toned down version of OpenGL. That’s not all, it is also capable of using OpenAL to produce 3D audio. Another feature that the iPhone is known for, other than it’s multi-touch technology, is the accelerometer that the iPhone uses to switch between portrait to landscape modes. During the presentation, it was revealed that the iPhone’s accelerometer is actually capable of detecting three axis’ of movement. To put it in perspective, that means that the iPhone actually has the same amount of motion controls that the Wii’s Nunchuck attachment has. More after the jump.