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iControlPad launches for iPhone, other phones promised
UPDATE: Gmail Chat phone calls: accidentally rolled out to non-US users
Nokia C6 hits Vodafone UK
Call of Duty: Black Ops set to repeat Modern Warfare 2 controversy?
Nokia N8: hands-on first impressions and Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound explained!
Nokia N8: Vodafone gets exclusive green edition
iPhone jailbreakers call it quits on 4.0.2
Halo: Reach new live action trailer revealed!
Apple prepping social iTunes but no streaming?
IE 9: Leaked pic gives first look at final cut

iControlPad launches for iPhone, other phones promised

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 08:45 AM PDT

The iControlPad is the long-promised gaming add-on for the iPhone that adds proper gamepad controls to your phone. The device has been in developent for years but is finally available.. with more to come.

We first told you about the iControlPad back in 2008. At the time the designers said that they were ‘just working out a few bugs’. Well, they must have needed an extra large can of RAID but now – a mere two years later – the iControlPad is ready to ship.

The iControlPad grips your iPhone between two vertical bars, one of which contains a connector that plugs in to your phone’s sync port. With your iPhone held in landscape mode you can hold the pad like you would a DS or a console game controller.

Games will need to be specially written to take advantage of the controller, and currently you need to be running a jailbroken phone to take advantage of emulators like PSX4All and gameboy4iphone. No pricing details are available yet, but the initial run will only be for 3000 iControlPads, so if you want one you should get your credit card at the ready .

Owners of other phones can take heart – the developer reckons he is working on a model that can be used with other handsets (Android? Please?) although we would not recommend holding your breath, based on the way this one turned out.

Available soon | £tbc | iControlPad (via Engadget)

UPDATE: Gmail Chat phone calls: accidentally rolled out to non-US users

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 08:15 AM PDT

Yesterday we reported on the incoming Gmail Chat feature being rolled out to Gmail customers in the US, that allowed them to call any phone, domestic for free, and internationally at cheap rates. This morning, I woke up to find the feature enabled on my non-US Gmail account. Since I don't have anyone in the US to call at 8am, I didn't try it out straight away. By the time I returned to it at lunchtime, it had disappeared. I was disappointed, so contacted Google for more info…

What happened? Google got over excited, and leaked the phone calling from Gmail Chat feature to non-US users, and unfortunately, rolled the Gmail Chat feature back within a couple of hours.

A spokesperson for Google said: “In our excitement to share voice calling, we got a little ahead of ourselves and, unintentionally, made it available for a brief time in some languages we don't support yet. We’ve rolled back the feature, and apologize for any inconvenience. We launched it yesterday to US users and look forward to bringing localised versions to more people in the future.”

So disappointingly, the Google Gmail Chat phone call feature hasn't been made available outside the US, as it appeared today, and as we said in our earlier update, although it did get shunted out to some of us temporarily by accident.

UPDATE: reports have been coming in from people outside the US, who just have their language set to English (US), saying the feature is still there. The comment from Google specifies languages, not territories. So it rolled out to English (UK) this morning by accident, and now it’s gone, unless you reset your language to English (US), which brings back the dialog box. Google confirmed this is the case, and said: “If users have set their account to US-English, they might be able to access the feature in some other countries as well.” I tried calling the Google press office in the US, and while it rang out, I still got a full dialling tone. Looks like free calls to the US are just a click away, so long as you don’t mind sacrificing your Gmail spellcheck…

Nokia C6 hits Vodafone UK

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 08:05 AM PDT

The Nokia C6 has bounced onto Vodafone UK, so if you're in the market for an affordable Symbian S60 smartphone you're in luck. Read on to remind yourself of the features it's packing and what deals Vodafone is offering to tempt you to pick it up…

Our Nokia C6 review was pretty tough on the Finn's latest economical blower but you may still find something to please you in the specs. It's no state-of-the-art smartie like the Nokia N8 but gives you a full Qwerty slide-out keyboard, HSDPA, Wi-Fi and a 5MP camera with auto-focus and LED flash.

Vodafone is offering the Nokia C6 for free on a £20 a month contract. For that you'll get 100 minutes of talk and 500 texts bundled into the deal.

If you're after a decent Nokia smartphone for a price that won't punish your recession ravaged pocket, then the Nokia C6 on Vodafone could be just the ticket. Take a look at our mobile phone deals site too to see what other tempting tariff deals are out there and check out our best smartphones list if you're only after the cream of the crop.

Out now | £free on contract | Vodafone (via Fonehome)

Call of Duty: Black Ops set to repeat Modern Warfare 2 controversy?

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 07:45 AM PDT

First Person Shooters are already under tabloid scrutiny after the decision to allow play as the Taliban in Medal of Honor drew criticism from the UK’s Defence Secretary. Call of Duty: Black Ops Developers Treyarch were asked if they had anything planned for their game that would provoke similar controversy. “Controversial is such a subjective term,” was the response.

GameZine spoke to Treyarch’s community manager Josh Olin about the upcoming first-person shooter. When asked if there was anything in the game that was as likely to provoke a reaction as MW2’s ‘No Russian’ airport massacre he replied,”It’s tough to say. It is a mature themed game for mature audiences and we’re not shying away from the brutality or grittiness of war. Capturing that level of authenticity and realism is important in trying to immerse the players.

“Anything we do will be to propel the story or elicit an emotional response from the player, to make them feel angry or righteous or sad. Those are all elements that help immerse the player that much more deeply into the world.”

Hmm. It isn’t exactly a denial, it it? In addition to the aforementioned Taliban multiplayer mode, Call of Duty: Black Ops is reportedly based around several real-life incidents – including the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege, that saw the SAS storm the London embassy following the murder of several hostages. So.. absolutely no possibility of controversy there, eh?

Out November 9 | £varies | Call of Duty: Black Ops (via GameZines)

Nokia N8: hands-on first impressions and Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound explained!

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 07:22 AM PDT

Today we got hands on with the Nokia N8, and had an in depth look at one of its most important features – the HDTV-loving skills offered by the HDMI output. Read on for our Nokia N8 first impressions…

When the Nokia N8 was announced, the reaction from lots of places was 'I'll believe it when I see it'. Would the Nokia N8’s Dolby Digital Plus surround sound and HDMI connection – which means you can compress HD video with surround sound, save it to your phone and then plug it in to a full stereo to play back in full quality – deliver?

First off, there’s a small HDMI connector at the top of the Nokia N8. Luckily though, you won’t need to buy a new cable as Nokia will include an adapter in the box.

Plug in and you can control video playback with the Nokia N8 touchscreen. What you see on the phone’s screen is mirrored on TV screen and also reflects the orientation of your phone. We watched an 84MB 3min 25sec full HD clip with flawless surround sound and the results were impressive. But how does it work?

To compress a HD video with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound, the tech inside the Nokia N8 uses what are called "perceptual coders", which analyse the audio. The algorithms understand how the brain and ears interpret sound and discards parts of the audio that are inaudible or masked by other sounds. It can then uncompress the sound when you watch and listen on a home cinema system.

The Nokia N8 has some intelligent tech inside it which detects what device you're viewing and listening on. So if you're watching your HD surround sound video using stereo headphones, the Nokia N8 splits up the audio and redistributes it to give stereo sound. When you plug it into your home cinema, it boosts the sound again to bring out the best quality.

The files need to be MPEG4 Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound files to be played in surround sound, which are effectively 256kbps, but for ordinary audio playback the Nokia N8 supports MP3, AAC, WMR and AMR-WB. The Nokia N8 supports Micro SD cards up to 32GB but it also has 16GB of onboard storage.

The Nokia N8 camera is also a big selling point. With 12MP, it’s packing more megapixels than a lot of compacts and has a Carl Zeiss lens and Xenon flash. We tested in in low light – often a problem for mobile cameras despite the fact that they often end up taking snaps at night and in the pub – and the Nokia N8 performed well, with a responsive flash and no obvious noise.

The extra skills of Nokia N8 make it a strong proposition for those of us who are heavy consumers of films and TV programs, and who want to carry one device instead of three. But it also offers an opportunity for Nokia to push itself as the smartphone maker that lets users do more thanks to that HDMI connection. How this will affect the Ovi store will be interesting. The Nokia N8 could be paving the way for HD surround sound movies and TV shows…

Out mid September 2010 | approx. £320 | TBA

Nokia N8: Vodafone gets exclusive green edition

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 07:05 AM PDT

If you’re after a Nokia N8 when it’s released in the next few weeks, and haven’t decided on a colour yet, then take note: Vodafone has exclusivity on the acid green Nokia N8. If you’re after getting your hands on the dazzling green Nokia N8 in particular, then sign up for availability updates over at Vodafone, and you’ll be notified when the Nokia N8 makes its grand arrival.

[via FoneHome]

iPhone jailbreakers call it quits on 4.0.2

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 06:45 AM PDT

Score one to Apple. Leading iPhone jaibreak hackers the Dev Team have decided not to bother trying to make an exploit that will jailbreak iPhones running the 4.0.2 firmware, claiming that they don’t want to be drawn into a game of ‘cat and mouse’ with Apple.

Jailbreaking the iPhone may nave been given the legal nod over in the US, but that doesn’t mean that Apple has to take it lying down. Jailbreakers are in a constant arms race with Apple, as every firmware update could potentially close off another vulnerability that allows a jailbreak to take place and the hackers are forced to come up with more creative way s of wriggling around Apple’s security.

The recent 4.0.2 update to iOS4 (and the iOS3 update 3.2.2) has locked down the iPhone again and users who installed it report that it reverses any jailbreak performed on their phones. Normally the Dev Team – the coders responsible for the leading jailbreaking tools – would bounce back with an update of their own, but not this time.

In a statement on their blog, the Dev Team have announced that they will not be providing any further patches for the 4.0.x branch of the iPhone’s firmware, preferring instead to just work on a hack for version 4.1, which is currently in beta.

“With FW 4.1 still in its beta stages, it makes no sense to escalate the ‘cat & mouse’ with Apple for FW updates that only fix the jailbreak holes. To quote WOPR [the computer from WarGames], ‘the only winning move is not to play’.”

Out TBC | £free | iPhone Dev Team (via MCV)

Halo: Reach new live action trailer revealed!

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 06:35 AM PDT

Halo: Reach has got the live action treatment in a new short video that's hit Xbox.com, Halo Waypoint and the Bungie website today. The Halo: Reach "Deliver Hope" video gives us another glimpse of the Noble Team's defence of Reach against the Covenant and was created by some seriously heavyweight talent. Read on for all the details…

The Halo: Reach "Deliver Hope" live action trailer gets its TV debut on Sunday at 11.40pm on Channel 4 but if you're planning to be tucked up in bed by then you can catch a preview of it online now. An extended version will hit YouTube on September 6.

The latest in a series of live action Halo clips, Deliver Hope was directed by Noam Murro who also helmed the Halo: Reach Birth of a Spartan film. He's joined by Brian Emerich (who worked on The Wrestler) as sound designer and editor Angus Wall (who's part of the team behind the Facebook movie, The Social Network).

The Halo: Reach "Deliver Hope" live action video trailer is definitely worth a watch with lashings of dramatic music, a massive bomb and a seriously wounded Spartan. Essentially, it's Halo: Reach meets Saving Private Ryan. If the clip leaves you wanting more, you can head to www.RememberReach.com where you'll find a collection of live action clips of live on Reach before that damned Covenant invasion.

Halo: Reach hits the shops on September 14 and we're bound to see lots more marketing hoopla from Microsoft before it does. Hit the comments to let us know what you make of Deliver Hope and whether you're planning on grabbing Halo: Reach. And stay tuned to Electricpig for more Halo: Reach news.

Out now | £free | Halo

Apple prepping social iTunes but no streaming?

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 06:05 AM PDT

Next week's Apple event has stoked up plenty of new rumours but while we're almost certain to see the new iPod touch, if you've been waiting for iTunes streaming, you may have to wait a little longer. New reports suggest Apple will unveil a new, more social iTunes but isn't ready to jump to the cloud just yet…

Music industry sources say Apple hasn't inked licensing deals it would need to have in place to launch an iTunes streaming service. Instead, they're suggesting that it has a new web-based version of the iTunes Store in the works. That sounds like an extension of the current iTunes web previews and definitely makes sense. It’s just a mite disappointing given all the talk since Apple shuttered web-streaming outfit LaLa.

The social iTunes update will break down the walls between the store and the rest of the Internet, making it easier to share your musical tastes with friends. The suggestion is that Apple will make it simple to throw recommendations out through Twitter and Facebook and share playlists.

There's also speculation that the new social iTunes will introduce wireless syncing between your iPhone/iPod touch and your laptop. Having to manually hook up to your laptop to sync songs is definitely starting to seem pretty old-fashioned especially with Android music syncing hotting up.

Then again, we could still see some form of iTunes streaming unveiled next Wednesday without the labels on board by revealing cloud storage. But it doesn't seem likely.

What do you want to see Apple do with iTunes? Should it pull its finger out and get streaming sorted or would you be happy to just see a few tweaks?

Out TBC | £TBC | Apple (via All Things D)

IE 9: Leaked pic gives first look at final cut

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 05:45 AM PDT

Microsoft’s Russian has accidentally posted a picture and some details of the next incarnation of Internet Explorer – IE9. The browser – which is not due for release until next month – seems to be taking a few pointers from rivals , in particular Google’s Chrome.

Sometimes it seems as though overseas press offices are only there to give corporations a way of leaking advance details of upcoming products. Such was the case earlier this week when MSPress.ru, Microsoft’s press office in the Russian Federation, posted some details and a screen grab of the new IE9 web browser.

The post was yanked before you could say Niet, but was of course screen captured for your viewing pleasure. At first glance the new IE 9 looks – dare we say it? – like Google Chrome. The minimalist user interface looks a dead ringer for Google’s browser, at least, and promised support for tear-off tabs and a faster javascript engine (codenamed Chakra) could come straight from a Google press release.

Also listed among IE9’s features is support for ‘recognized’ sites. These trusted websites will be able to launch in separate windows unconnected with the main IE9 browser. This sounds a lot like support for running web apps – like Google Docs or Hotmail – in their own processes like ‘real’ applications. There is a Mozilla Firefox project called Prism which does roughly the same thing but it is not really ready for prime time, at least on Windows.

IE9 is supposedly due for release in September. We have to say this is the first time in a while we will be looking forward to an IE update.

Due September | £free | Microsoft (via BGR)