The world of film and video games come ever closer as Electronic Arts (EA) team up with Steven Spielberg to develop three original video games.
This isn’t a simple ET, the video game idea. Spielberg (and his team we suspect) will be sitting down with EA in their LA offices, hammering out completely new titles, directly working on concept, design, story and artistic visualisation.
Terms aren’t divulged, but we hate to think how much The Spielberg will be pocketing for this privilege.
We’re sure the possibility of this has no bearing on the The Spiels’ flattery of EA, “I have been playing EA games for years and have watched them master the interactive format.” it’s true, they do have a seemingly never ending flow of polished titles jumping on to the market.
The mutual-appreciation society didn’t break up there. EA Chairman and CEO Larry Probst, went on, “There is no greater storyteller than Steven Spielberg. In addition to his gift for pleasing movie audiences, he has an innate understanding of games and how to immerse players into a fantastic world of action and characters.”
EA has been, how shall we say, “inspired”, heavily by The S before, as anyone who’s ever played the opening scene of the first Medal of Honor, and heard of a film called Saving Private Ryan may have noticed.
In this crazy, lawyer-driven business world, some are wondering if the similarity was the basis for the start of discussions – rather than sue the pants off us, why don’t we do a multi-game deal? No … that would never happen, would it?
We’ve said it before, and we’ll keep saying it until it becomes true – once video games develop depth of personality and back story for its characters, TV and film is in serious trouble. Why would you want to just watch a film, when you can be in it?
King S clearly thinks the possibility of this is drawing closer. Well done to EA for snagging him.
Steven Spielberg image – thanks to Wikipedia
EA
* I downloaded and installed iTunes6. Takes 5-10 minutes. No big deal. iTunes6 has the same basic interface and purchasing/sampling system as previous versions of iTunes.
* File sizes: Killers video: 20.1 mb; Desperate Housewives episode: 208.6 mb. Both were MPEG-4 video files.
* I’m sure there are some underlying copyright / “rip-off Britain” issues at play here. I’m just not smart enough to figure them out. But there is a problem when the popular television shows are not available on iTunes-UK and the same music video is 1.89 GBP or about $3.30 – that’s $1.30 extra for each music video that UK customers must pay.
Last night Apple launched 3 new products (as we 
Front Row gives extremely simple access to content stored on the iMacincluding music through iTunes, videos (including the newly availablevideo content that’s available through iTunes), photos stored in iPhotoand DVD’s though iDVD. The remote works up to 30 feet away from theunit.
Since there’s no base unit (everything is built into the actualdisplay) the amount is space they require is minimal. They’d look justas good on a desk as in the living room.
iTunes 5 was launched with the iPod nano, and a month later there’s nowiTunes 6 to go with the 5th generation model. The main new advance isvideo content, there are now around 2000 music videos available on theiTunes music store (unfortunately there’s still a huge pricedifferential between the US and UK with a music video costing $1.99 inthe US and GBP 1.89 in the UK – with the UK getting panned on price, as usual).
The video aspects of the iTunes store, though limited at the moment,are a major break-through (even ground-breaking) especially with thecurrent shows being available. Disney obviously have a huge amount ofcontent they could make available if all the legal intricacies can besorted. Once one studio cracks, they’ll all follow suit.
Apple’s future has definitely been shaped by the iPod (they sold 1mNanos in 17 days – how many returned was, not surprisingly undefined) which is molding how the company moves forward.
After weeks of frantic speculation that a video-capable iPod was on the way, Apple have sure enough announced the very thing at their event in the California Theatre in San Jose and BBC Television Centre in the UK.
New iMac G5. A bit faster, but the big thing is FrontRow. It’s Apple’s Media Centre-killer. The new Apple Remote, a svelte 6 button remote control that looks like a shuffle, controls any media you have on your iMac. Makes the MS Media Centre 26+ button remote look very wrong – too tech. Simplicity reigns. iSight camera is built in. Parallel output to bigger screen, projector. Price is very tempting starting at $1,299 (17″ £899 inc vat, €1379) (20″ £1199, €1799).
Video-capable iPod. Next gen iPod with 30% thinner than current generation player but with a bigger 2.5″ colour screen. 320×240 QVGA (quarter VGA), but not wide screen as rumoured. Video playback supports MPEG-4 and h.264 playback. 30Gb & 60Gb. S-vdeo out through the doc, but video will appear pixelated on full size TV screen. The 30GB should go for $299 (~£219~€349), and the 60GB for $399 (~£300~€469). They’re on the Apple online Store and will be shipping next week.?
There is a dilemma with the pursuit of mobile living that we’re all familiar with. The constant need for recharging.
Theirs is a contact-less charger, so there’s no worry about different connectors. It uses electromagnetic induction to pass electricity from a charging plate to any suitably equipped device that’s placed on it. Think cordless kettle or electric toothbrush.
Beyond that they have to persuade the device manufacturers to include their SplashModule in devices, but without the charging SplashPads out there, why would they? The same is true to the venues installing SplashPads, without a pool of equipped mobile devices.
They’ve expanded their range of pads to include one that charges two devices and a single unit too, which is a smaller, travel-friendly version. In the current trend for personalisation, decorated/pattered covers can be fitted to the front.
Nokia has announced the Eseries phones, a new range of devices designed for swivel action execs and be-suited business bods.
The devices are the first in the industry to support remote device management based on OMA DM*, letting IT managers remotely control and protect corporate data on the device and fiddle about with phone configurations. Or just have a good nose about.
Nokia E61 (right)
Nokia E70 (left)
UK-based software developers Xara, have announced an update to their sophisticated vector graphics program Xara X, adding new functions and renaming it Xara Xtreme.
In this latest version, the Xara Picture Editor has been updated and a new Live Effects tool allows Photoshop and Xara plug-in effects to be applied to photos and vector graphics.
Linux, Mac and Open Source versions planned
Moir table-thumped “We’re going to a place that Microsoft and Adobe cannot go. The Open Source world is the acknowledged largest threat to established giants such as Microsoft. We felt it was necessary for us to shake up the graphics world a bit, and making one of the most powerful, easiest to use graphics applications Open Source should do the trick.”
Just like the Smash aliens falling over laughing at the sight of humans mashing potatoes, one day people may look back in amazement that people used to walk around the streets with bits of wire hanging from their lug’oles.
Using CSR’s BlueCore3-ROM (BC3-ROM) and proprietary BlueCore Host Software (BCHS) – whatever they are – Samsung’s phones can wirelessly stream MP3 music via Bluetooth to the latest Bluetooth stereo headsets, like their very own SBH100.
The integrated BlueCore Host Software helps reduce the power consumption of the Bluetooth device by implementing all of the Bluetooth lower power modes such as deep sleep, letting uses take full advantage of all handset features without draining battery life.
The SGH-E750 and SGH-E760 handsets are expected to be available on GSM networks worldwide in Q4 2005.
With the corporate might and phenomonal R&D budgets of Nikon and Canon continuing to create cameras that dominate the dSLR (digital Single Lens Reflex) market, smaller brands are discovering the benefits of pooling their resources to produce rival products.
The partnership will draw on Samsung’s digital image processing technologies, brand recognition and digital convergence technologies while Pentax can offer an established dSLR brand with a huge range of interchangeable lenses. It can’t hurt that Samsung currently are one of the biggest players in LCD screens production.
Samsung’s recent Pro815, an advanced prosumer compact digital camera, attracted praise for its innovation while Pentax’s *ist dSLR range has won many friends, although failing to match the popularity of rival Nikon and Canon products,
Continued growth is predicted for the world-wide digital camera market, with pundits expecting the tally for 2005 to be around 82 million unit sales, soaring to 89 million in 2006.
BPI, the UK record label industry association has released its third-quarter report revealing that it’s boom time for the Brit digital music industry.
Digital is also claiming a bigger share of the Top 75 singles chart, growing from 15.9 percent when the combined chart launched in mid-April to 25.5 percent at the end of August.
Once again, the death of vinyl has been exaggerated with the 7-inch physical singles market registering 80 per cent growth with 800,000 sales.
“While the record label model of investing in the best new music talent remains the same, the emergence of innovative new digital services means that the record companies can offer consumers even greater choice as to how to access their music.”