PixelJunk Monsters Dev Working On Nintendo DS Game

Dylan Cuthbert, the man who helped create the original Star Fox series, said in a recent interview that his Q Games is working on a previously unannounced Nintendo DS title.

While talking about the latest PixelJunk release, he was asked whether the PixelJunk series was the main focus of Q Games.

“It’s not the main focus it’s one part of Q…We work directly with Nintendo on second party titles,” he told Siliconera.

“We are working on a Nintendo DS title. Hopefully it will be announced soon, but we don’t know yet. It should finish up soon, but we don’t know when it will come out,” he continued.

We’re as surprised as you are.  We’ll provide more information when we dig up some details about the mystery game.

http://www.revolutionportal.com/2008/02/29/pixeljunk-monsters-dev-working-on-nintendo-ds-game/

Italy's Intel: Sicilian Mafia in Crisis

ROME (AP) — Sicilian Mafia infighting is surging as the crime gang struggles to find new leaders following arrests of top mobsters, Italy's intelligence officials said Friday.

The separate arrests of top boss Bernardo Provenzano in 2006 and possible successor Salvatore Lo Piccolo last year have disrupted the crime syndicate's activities and increased infighting, according to an annual report by intelligence agencies.

Lo Piccolo was vying to replace Provenzano at the top of Cosa Nostra when he was apprehended.

The Mafia appears "to suffer the lack of suitable successors because its surviving cadres are second-raters," said the report, which looked at evidence from last year.

Some mobsters tend to focus on petty crime more than in the past, a possible sign of the lower level, the report said. Businesses have started refusing to pay the extortion fees, a traditional main source of income.

"In Sicily there's a progressive disarticulation of the mob phenomenon," Gen. Giuseppe Cucchi, a top intelligence official, told a news conference to present the report.

The officials said that while the Sicilian mob is in crisis, the gang known as 'ndrangheta is on the rise — confirming a trend that has long been emphasized by investigators.

The 'ndrangheta — based in Calabria, a southern region opposite Sicily — has largely taken over drug trafficking. The group's international reach came into the spotlight last summer with the killing of six Italians outside a pizzeria in Germany.

The report looks at security threats in Italy and abroad, concerning both domestic crime syndicates as international terror groups.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jT102Objw1UH9o-MRg3xjhuuwdAgD8V4DBU82

Intel starting to put the emphasis on comfy work spaces

HILLSBORO, Ore. - Cubicles - the American worker cannot escape them. They represent what we love about productivity and everything we hate about confinement.

"It's somewhat like a prison," said Intel employee Grant McMullen, adding he supports his company's latest effort to change its corporate culture.

"They're no longer isolated in these big cubicles," said Dusty Robbins, a director of operations at Intel's Hillsboro office.

During a tour, Robbins showed KATU News how their new 'pilot' office has replaced old gray cubicles with open spaces, brighter lighting and golden-hued furniture. Desks are also more flexible.

"What we have is the ability to raise or lower (the desks), whether you're a sitter a stander or in-between," Robbins said during a demonstration.

Why change things up?

Robbins said they are learning important lessons from other companies like Google and Amazon. Specifically, that office space should be a place you want to work and play in.

"Over the years, we've forgotten the play side. And I would say that for those who work hard a little down time actually helps creativity," he said.

In other words, we're seeing even the most rigid institutions try to think outside the box.

Companies like Weiden + Kennedy in the Pearl District are taking the concept of the creative work space to a whole new level.

Inside their industrial-themed office, workers are free to watch television whenever they please. During a tour of the ad agency du jour, KATU News saw employees talking freely, kicking a soccer ball around, working out in the gym, and passing a football across a room. Kegs are usually stocked throughout the building and tired employees are welcome to take naps in dimly lit rooms.

It appears to be a surreal environment, until you remember this is the same agency that made its name telling Nike fans to "Just do it."

Intel is learning it must change its workplace philosophy too if it wants to keep employees happy.

The new pilot project is boosting morale for employees like Claudia McCarter, who has a background in interior design.

"It's going to make people want to come to work more," she said, likening the new look to a livingroom rather than an institution.

There's another added perk. Those who want to vent their frustrations can now play Nintendo Wii or Guitar Hero in the lobby.

"This is going to take too much of our time if we have this everyday!" said employee Paolo Aseron, following a Wii boxing match that left him tired and sweaty.

Intel is testing the new work space in just one small section of their Hillsboro campus. If it helps productivity, they will likely expand.

In general, experts say happy employees work better with others, are less likely to get sick and complain less.

http://www.katu.com/news/local/16136247.html

Intel Diamondville details revealed

Intel may have rebuilt a reputation for their high performance chips over the past few years, but the company is now aggressively targeting the low-cost, low-power market as well with the forthcoming Diamondville platform – which according to details leaked to DailyTech, could enable an entire system to operate within a 10W envelope.

The first Diamondville processors will arrive at the end of Q2, in the form of the single-core SC 230 and SC 270, intended for desktop and mobile systems, respectively. The chips will run at 1.6GHz, have 512KB L2 caches and a mere 4 to 8W thermal envelope. Though processor pricing hasn't yet been announced yet, the Diamondville chips are expected to make its way into systems in the $250 to $300 price range.

http://www.techspot.com/news/29221-intel-diamondville-details-revealed.html

Nokia: We've got N-Gage, bring it on!; N-Gage coming to Nokia N73 in Q2 2008

When you're the biggest name in your particular market, you can go off and talk smack to just about anyone about whatever you feel like. Nokia is most definitely the market-leader in the mobile phone industry, and they've got the, ahem, hardware (and software now) to back it up. With Nokia's renewed push into the mobile gaming space, they've gotten a bit sure of themselves. And with good reason, the Finns in sunny Espoo have been working for years to perfect their mobile gaming platform, N-Gage, and are now ready to rock the mobile world with an onslaught of mobile games.

So, what does Nokia think about competitors to their N-Gage platform - by which we are mainly talking about Sony Ericsson and their oft-rumored PSP-branded mobile phone? Jaakko Kaidesoja, head of games at Nokia, was caught taunting N-Gage rivals at a recent press event, saying, "I'm not scared about anybody. The real question is how do they do it? Can they create a link between the PSP games and a phone? Can they do the multiplayer and online stuff? We've been doing this for two years and it hasn't been easy."

Unfortunately, Nokia N73 owners will have to wait on getting N-Gage on their handset. "We promised the N73 earlier, but we found some memory issues, as it has a lower memory spec than other devices," says Kaidesoja. "That gives some headaches, but we'll deal with that, and will release for the device during the second quarter."

As Nokia gets set to broaden N-Gage into a platform, rather than brand it to a single handset, we'll see the Nokia N82 and N95 get the N-Gage treatment soon enough - joining the N-Gage N81 among Nokia's stable of gaming handsets. And, Kaidesoja mentioned that as S60 Touch gets to become a reality, Nokia is working to bring touchscreen functionality to the N-Gage platform.

Them's fighting words, Sony Ericsson. Nokia wants to throw down, you should give them a piece. And, maybe send one of them PSP Phones our way?

http://www.intomobile.com/2008/02/29/nokia-weve-got-n-gage-bring-it-on-n-gage-coming-to-nokia-n73-in-q2-2008.html

FIRST LOOK: Nokia N-Gage 2.0

The portable gaming world is littered with brave failures: the Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear and Nintendo Virtual Boy all live on in infamy. Sitting with these is the Nokia N-Gage, the Finnish phone giant’s attempt to steal Nintendo’s portable gaming crown.

Unfortunately the original N-Gage device looked like a cross between a Batman accessory and a plastic taco, and when it first appeared in 2003 it cost around twice as much as the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. These factors conspired to make it bomb – the Game Boy Advance outselling the Nokia product 100-to-one in the N-Gage’s first few weeks on sale in the US. But all credit to Nokia – after producing a second, marginally less ugly, but still unsuccessful N-Gage handset, in 2005 the firm decided to turn the N-Gage brand into a ‘platform’, and use its regular Symbian-based phone handsets for the hardware.

This second-generation N-Gage platform has now launched on the N81 and N81 8GB handsets, and is set to appear on six other N-series phones in coming weeks and months (Nokia doesn’t yet have a precise date. The vendor has clearly put some effort into making this N-Gage a success: as well as a significant number of Nokia own-brand games, the firm has signed up many of the biggest names in gaming, including EA, Vivendi, THQ and Gamesoft.

The games
Nokia has lined up some big-hitting games for N-Gage, including Fifa 08 from EA Sports, Worms World Party, war game Brothers In Arms, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – and the ever-popular Tetris. Nokia is announcing new titles almost weekly, so check out the N-Gage site for the latest releases.

While the range of titles will be key to the success – or failure – of the second-generation N-Gage, the acid test is of course how playable the games actually are. Because if If FIFA 08 plays like Minesweeper, the rest is irrelevant.

Fortunately, our early tests suggest this playability is pretty good. The N81, for instance, incorporates a two-way controller around the earpiece – combined with the D-pad and other buttons, this offers a good range of control for software such as football games. As ever, your mileage may vary with playability, but Nokia seems to have thought this one through.

The graphics are pretty snazzy as well; a pre-release demo of Fifa 07 showed realistic players in a 3D environment – and, as we know, Fifa 08 is a substantial improvement over last year’s version. The other demo on offer –Space Impact – was a fairly standard shoot-em-up with smooth and pleasant visuals and gameplay.

This generation of N-Gage is not backward compatible with older N-Gage games – but Nokia says it is porting many previous offerings to the new platform.

N-GAGE 2.0 QUICK GUIDE
• Software platform for mobile gaming
• Compatible with Nokia N-series handsets: N73, N81,
N81 8GB, N82, N93, N93i, N95, N95 8GB
• New users can download and install N-Gage platform
through GPRS/3G, Wi-Fi, or a PC link
• N-Gage platform download is free
• Trial game versions are free, full versions paid-for.

http://www.itp.net/reviews/details.php?id=3278

Canadian snowboarders advance to men's final of Nokia Snowboard World Cup

CALGARY — It was another solid afternoon for Canadian men on the halfpipe during Friday's semifinal action at the Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup at Canada Olympic Park.

Justin Lamoureux of Squamish, B.C., finished atop the 12-man field, advancing to Friday night's final along with Neil Connolly of Collingwood, Ont., and Dan Raymond of Whistler, B.C.

Lamoureux rode with confidence, pulling off a 1080 spin and maintaining high amplitude through much of his two runs. The three Canadians will join three fellow countrymen who automatically qualified Thursday to make up half of the 12-man field for the final.

In women's semifinal action, Mercedes Nicoll of Whistler was the lone Canadian and failed to qualify for the final. Sophie Rodriguez of France, Kelly Marren of the United States and Kendall Brown of New Zealand will compete in the final along with three Chinese snowboarders who automatically qualified Thursday.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5j4-7q6_tf8ORQ9mQzUwQdVgG_BnA

Nokia and university stretch into mobile phones arena

The University of Cambridge has collaborated with Finnish mobile handset giant, Nokia, to develop the concept for a new stretchable and flexible mobile phone developed.

Morph, the joint nanotechnology concept, was launched at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Morph is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobile device into radically different shapes.

According to the University, the concept demonstrates “the ultimate functionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexible materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces.”

Professor Mark Welland, Head of the Department of Engineering’s Nanoscience Group at the University said: “Developing the Morph concept with Nokia has provided us with a focus that is both artistically inspirational but, more importantly, sets the technology agenda for our joint nanoscience research that will stimulate our future work together.”

Dr Tapani Ryhanen, head of the NRC Cambridge UK laboratory, Nokia, added: “We hope that this combination of art and science will showcase the potential of nanoscience to a wider audience.

“The techniques we are developing might one day mean new possibilities in terms of the design and function of mobile devices.

“The research we are carrying out is fundamental to this as we seek a safe and controlled way to develop and use new materials.”

The partnership was announced in March, 2007 – an agreement to work together on an extensive and long term programme of joint research projects. NRC has established a research facility at the University’s West Cambridge site and collaborates with several departments initially the Nanoscience Center and Electrical Division of the Engineering Department on projects that, to begin with, are centered on nanotechnology.

The Nanoscience Centre provides open access to over 300 researchers from a variety of University departments.


http://www.businessweekly.co.uk/2008022931521/high-tech/nokia-and-university-stretch-into-mobile-phones-arena.html

WIN: Paint by DS on Nintendo DS!

Ever fancied yourself as the new Van Gogh? Or how about Gould? Well, budding painters worldwide are about to get a helping hand with Ataris innovative new Nintendo DS title, Paint by DS! The game allows would-be artists thats you to swap their pencil and paintbrush for a DS stylus and gives them the chance to recreate some of the art-worlds most timeless classics like Hokusais The Waves or Cezannes Le Golfe de Marseille.

Players can select all kinds of paintings from three different difficulty levels offering something for all abilities, from master artisans down to those more comfortable with crayons. And when youre not painting your masterpiece, you can unlock more tools, canvases and frames by completing a multitude of mini games, or just head to the gallery and admire your handy work. And show it off to friends, of course. Again and again and again. You're an artist! It's allowed.

For your chance to win a copy of Paint by DS, simply answer the question below.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/competitions-offers/2008/03/01/win-paint-by-ds-on-nintendo-ds-86908-20334772/

A First For Nintendo Wii: Binge Eating And Purging!

There are a million different games that we could have thought of for Wii, but to be honest, we didn't see this one coming from a mile away.

Major League Eating: The Game. We're dead serious.

It's an upcoming WiiWare title revolving around competitive eating whose price has yet to be announced.

The bizarre title will use the Nintendo Wii remote to eat in a smorgasbord of styles which include the cram, toss, and 'typewriter.'

We feel so out of the loop.

"Watching Major League Eating is like watching poetry in motion," says Bill Swartz, Head Woof at Mastiff. "Professional gurgitators have the grace of ballerinas yet the brute strength, mental focus, and intestinal fortitude to push their bodies and minds as hard as athletes in any other extreme endurance sport. Victory is sweet and defeat can be well, really, really messy. It's an experience we're proud to help bring into the home."

Hopefully, it will be incredibly cheap. It does promise to feature online play, at least.

http://www.nintendorevolution.ca/02292008/23/a_first_for_nintendo_wii_binge_eating_and_purging