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Apple event next Wednesday: We’ll be there!
New Kindle sales: no numbers, but Amazon claims they’re great
Apple hatching “very big new product”: What is it?
Final Fantasy Versus 13 not arriving 2011: Square Enix stumbles on
James Dyson Award shortlist: Electricpig top picks!
Portal makes uni reading list: What games would you include?
Facebook movie: drugs scene stays despite legal questions
Best iPad apps
Medal of Honor: Gamers’ Voice slams Liam Fox
Kingdom Hearts makes our Top 5 Best PSP games

Apple event next Wednesday: We’ll be there!

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 01:28 PM PDT

The Apple event we all knew was coming has been confirmed. From 6pm next Wednesday (That’s the 1st of September if you’re counting), we’ll be finding out about whatever the company’s got in store. Presumably we’ll be seeing a new iPod touch and nano, but the event could also see the launch of iTunes in the cloud and that revamped Apple TV. And yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, this is happening just one day before Samsung’s big Galaxy Tablet reveal, which could pull alot of attention away from the first big name Android tablet. Tune in next week when we’ll be covering it all live on the ground, with as much hands on coverage as you could possibly want.

New Kindle sales: no numbers, but Amazon claims they’re great

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 09:11 AM PDT

Typically evasive sales reporting from Amazon on the new Kindle today, as it states that “more next generation Kindles were ordered in the first four weeks of availability than in the same timeframe following any other Kindle launch, making the new Kindles the fastest-selling ever." As per usual, there are no figures to support this, so we can’t stack it up next to the iPad or any other tablet or e-reader to see how the user base compares. Although Amazon are always secretive about specific figures, and have never given numbers on Kindle sales, it sets off a niggle – if the Kindle is selling so well, why doesn’t Amazon give Kindle figures? Even the obsessively secretive Apple do that.

Apple hatching “very big new product”: What is it?

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 08:45 AM PDT

Apple is rumoured to be taking on new staff and has initiated an intensive training course to prepare them for a “very big new product”. Any new release from Apple is usually worth paying attention to, but what could this one be?

Mac Daily News is reporting that a source within Apple says that the company is taking on large numbers of telesales staff. The same source claims that the new staff are going to receive an intensive four-week training course to prepare them for the release of a “very big” and “significant” new product.

We are going to have to assume this isn’t a new Magic Mouse

Our best guess, based on the number of leaks we have seen over the last few days is a new iPod Touch. Just today we have seen another leak in the form of a video clip that claims to show iPod Touch parts.

Other possibilities include the rumoured Apple TV and a refreshed iPod Nano. It could of course be something entirely new. What do you lot think? Let us know in the comments.

TBC | £tbc | Apple (via Mac Daily News)

Final Fantasy Versus 13 not arriving 2011: Square Enix stumbles on

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 08:02 AM PDT

Final Fantasy Versus 13 isn't getting a release date any time soon. While Final Fantasy 14 is set to hit PS3 and PC on September 30, Square Enix refuses to pin an ETA on the long-gestating action RPG. And Final Fantasy Versus 13 producer Yoshinori Kitase has suggested it won't even hit Japan in 2011. Read on to share our disappointment…

Final Fantasy Versus 13 was unveiled at E3 in 2006 and four years and numerous Final Fantasy spin-offs later, we're still waiting for it to arrive.Final Fantasy 13 has been and gone and talk of a Final Fantasy 13 sequel even seems more solid than the future of Final Fantasy Versus 13.

Pressed on when the game will finally arrive, Kitase told Gaming Union that there isn't even a rough release timeline for Final Fantasy Versus 13. He said: "We have no release date information to update. Unfortunately, we can't saying anything about it. We can't commit ourselves to 2011 either."

If Final Fantasy Versus 13 doesn't emerge next year, it'll have racked up over 5 years of development and established itself even more firmly as Square Enix's Duke Nukem Forever. Are even the most fanatical Final Fantasy fans likely to be satisfied if and when it does make it to the shelves?

Let us know: are you still itching to get a glimpse of Final Fantasy Versus 13? Or should Square Enix just put us out our misery?

Out TBC | £TBC | Square Enix (via VG247)

James Dyson Award shortlist: Electricpig top picks!

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 07:04 AM PDT

Dyson has released the 20 strong shortlist for this year's James Dyson Award, but we've sifted through the inventions, and have brought you our top five picks of the best entries on the James Dyson Award shortlist, to bring you the most bizarre, useful and downright ingenious creations.

Electrostatic Noticeboard
The Electrostatic Noticeboard is just one of a clutch of entries from the UK that have made it onto the James Dyson Award shortlist. It does away with the need for pins and magnets, using the same bit of physics that sticks your hair up when you rub a balloon onto it, apart from this Dyson shortlisted invention only requires you to rub notes and papers on its surface to make it stick, not your own head.

USVP
Stinky footed folk rejoice – this James Dyson Award shortlisted invention may look like a SoccerSports drawstring bag, but it hides some nifty tech that uses UV lights to kill the bacteria, and with it, the whiff, from your shoes. It's powered by a rechargeable battery, which attaches to two arms that slip inside your shoes, and are clicked on after zipping up the bag.

Move-It
Move-it turns a bulky box into a convenient trolley. It's made completely from cardboard, and can be fitted in under a minute to any box you'd like to wheel along. It's a brilliant invention for those of us without cars, and could what you spend on home delivery, plus make getting a new telly (or Dyson machine?) home a lot easier.

Wanderest Seat
The Wanderest Seat is a flip down seat that attaches to lamposts, for a comfy sit down wherever civilisation exists. We can think of thousands of instances where the Wanderest Seat would be a godsend, not leats for an ageing population struggling with mobility, but also in more frivolous and lazy instances. All those bored people waiting for spouses and partners outside clothes shops/the Apple store can now pull up a chair!

The Copenhagen Wheel
The Dyson Award isn't the first outing for the Copenhagen Wheel, which was announced back in December last year. It stores energy in a back wheel you can retrofit to your bike in a few minutes flat. The energy it collects from your braking is then recycled and gives you an extra push in your pedal torque when you're on an uphill climb.

The full shortlist is here.

Who’s your money on for the James Dyson Award? Is there anything shortlisted that stands out to you, for being particularly ingenious, or groundbreaking? We want to hear what you think!

Portal makes uni reading list: What games would you include?

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 06:45 AM PDT

We are not sure how this will affect the “Are games art?” debate, but gaming has just had a little boost in academic circles with the news that Portal is now on the reading list at a US university. Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana has added Valve’s first-person puzzler to the list of required ‘reading’ materials for first-year students.

Wabash specialises in the liberal arts and Portal finds itself among such titles as the Epic of Gilgamesh, the works of Shakespeare and the poetry of John Donne.

The idea came from Michael Abbott – a teacher at Wabash who also runs a website called Brainy Gamer. Abbott read an interesting article on Portal at Gamasutra that examined the way the game deals with the concept of the self. This tied in with aspects of Abbotts’ course so he thought his students should get to grips with some Aperture Science.

This got us thinking – what other games are worthy academic study? Super Mario might be useful on a Mycology module, Final Fantasy VII might do well on a Classics degree (it is practically Greek Tragedy, after all) and surely any Home Economics GCSE is incomplete without Cooking Mama? Let us know what games you would like to see get the Brodies Notes treatment, in the comments.

Facebook movie: drugs scene stays despite legal questions

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 06:32 AM PDT

The Facebook movie, The Social Network, will be released with a scene featuring drug taking and bare breasts uncut despite suggestions that the apparently fictional scene could lead to legal issues. The Facebook movie's producer, Scott Rudin, had previously indicated that it might be cut but the boobs and blow scene will now reportedly make the final cut…

The Facebook movie, which is due for release in October, includes a scene depicting Napster co-founder and one-time Facebook President, Sean Parker, advising Mark Zuckerberg while two women offer them lines of cocaine racked out on naked breasts. A source told the New York Times that the scene is almost entirely a work of fiction.

Since the scene shows two living individuals with plenty of cash to sue the filmmakers, it had been suggested that it would be dropped from the final version of the Facebook movie. But now the Hollywood Reporter claims sources close to the production have confirmed that it is there to stay.

Parker, who is played in The Social Network by Justin Timberlake, left Facebook in 2005 but remains a major shareholder. A Facebook spokesperson stuck to the company line, downplaying the importance of the movie: "Maybe [it's] a sign Facebook has become meaningful to people, even if the movie is fiction. What the movie may or may not contain is not what we're focused on."

No, we'd imagine Facebook is more interested in working on Facebook Places and Facebook Questions. Though there is the small matter of Mark Zuckerberg's appearance on The Simpsons which it'll be hoping will distract some attention from The Social Network.

Let us know: are you planning to hit the cinema to watch the Facebook movie when it's released?

Out October 1 | £varies | The Social Network (via The Hollywood Reporter)

Best iPad apps

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 06:12 AM PDT

The best iPad apps are by no means the best iPhone apps too. That extra screen size opens up a wealth of opportunities for bonkers new ideas and software, and we’ve got the very finest of them for you over to the right of the full post in our Top 5 best iPad apps chart.

Cast your eyes over to the right of the page, and you’ll see our Top 5 Best iPad apps shortlist: we’ve scoured the App Store for what we think are the very best iPad apps, free or paid for, that you can download right now.

You can read more about each of the best iPad apps simply by clicking the button, while the Buy It tab takes you straight through to iTunes. We’re always combing the digital shelves of the App Store for new must have apps, and if any of them usurp our Top 5 Best iPad apps, they’ll go straight in – the list is always up to date.

What do you think are the best iPad apps? Are there some gems we’ve missed off? Shout up in the comments – we’d love to know what you think.

Medal of Honor: Gamers’ Voice slams Liam Fox

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 06:05 AM PDT

The Medal of Honor controversy rumbles on. Now Gamers' Voice, the pressure group founded by Labour MP (and committed gamer) Tom Watson, has called out Defence Secretary Liam Fox in an open letter. Something tells us it might be waiting quite some time for a reply…

Our Medal of Honor poll shows Electricpig readers back EA rather than Liam Fox on the issue of including the Taliban in the game's multiplayer mode. And Gamers' Voice unsurprisingly takes the same stance. In its open letter it calls on Fox to withdraw his comment on the game which he branded "disgusting".

Echoing EA's previous statements about Medal of Honor multiplayer, Gamers' Voice says: "Someone is going to have to play the bad guy. Children have been doing it for years with games like cops and robbers and cowboys and indians, should these be branded 'disgusting' too?"

It continues: "You comments about Medal of Honor are an attack on video games in general. Many films, television programmes and books have been set in the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many of these feature British, American or other NATO troops being injured or killed…we at Gamers' Voice feel your attack on Medal of Honor is an attack on video games and the people who play them in general."

The letter goes on to note that the Medal of Honor developers have called on military advisors to ensure the game is realistic. It also flags up that Counter Strike has long required one team to play as "terrorist bad guys". It concludes by asking Fox to "retract your misguided comments…or at least acknowledge that you've jumped on the anti-games bandwagon". You can read the whole letter on the Gamers' Voice website.

Let us know what you make of the Gamers' Voice statement. Is it a stout defence of video games or just a politically motivated attack? Keep the debate raging in the comments.

Out now | £free | Gamers' Voice

Kingdom Hearts makes our Top 5 Best PSP games

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 05:49 AM PDT

Caught our Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep review earlier today? If so, you’ll know the PSP adventure knocked our gaming socks off. So much so in fact, that we’ve decided to give it the coveted number one spot on our Best PSP games shortlist.

Cast your eyes over to the right and you’ll see that the new Kingdom Hearts has splashed straight in at number one spot on our Top 5 Best PSP games. You can read more about it by hitting the Read More button for the full Kingdom Hearts review, or slap the Buy It button to pre-order for its 10 September launch.

Sorry Gran Turismo, but you’re gone. Give us Disney characters an good ol’ JRPG over a realistic driving sim any day.

Confused by out Top 5 lists? Check them all out here alongside our Top 5 Best PSP games list, and read more about our Electricpig guarantee.