Microsoft solves Reach disc issues with Games on Demand

Did you get one of Microsoft's special copies of Halo: Reach? You know, the ones that were sent out to test their recent security update allowing developers more space on Xbox 360 game discs. You were probably super-stoked.

Your stoke-age was halted this week though, in all likelihood, as the most recent Reach title update prevented players using one of those magic free discs to get online – and from enjoying the beta playlists designed to ease players into Halo CE Anniversary's multiplayer tweaks. Microsoft has previously mentioned that a simple title update probably wouldn't get the job done. So today, they've started giving away Games on Demand copies of the game to affected users.Microsoft has been reaching out to participants of the preview program from earlier this year with the following email:

 "Earlier this year, you participated in the Xbox LIVE Public Preview program and were provided a copy of Halo: Reach as part of your participation. Unfortunately, this Halo: Reach "preview disc" cannot be updated with a conventional Title Update, causing the game to be unplayable after the recent Halo: Reach Title Update on September 21, 2011. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

To get you back online with Halo: Reach, below is a code for the Games on Demand version of the game. Once the code is redeemed and your copy of Halo: Reach is downloaded, the game will work as usual, including the features added by the title update. All of your Halo Reach game saves will work normally as well. You may then discard the disc from the Public Preview program.

Please note that this Games on Demand version of Halo: Reach will require you to have some storage on your Xbox 360 – a hard drive or USB of at least 6.6 gigabytes. "

more.

Leak, Revamp, Repeat: How The HTC Rhyme Almost Went Unisex

A while back, rumors surfaced about a new Android smartphone built by HTC. Rumors and leaks happen with just about every phone, but for this particular Android handset, we were hearing quite a lot about it.

Eventually specs trickled out, but before that all we knew was that it was a phone targeted to women: The HTC Bliss (now known as theRhyme).

Leak:

We heard it would launch in a “calming” sea foam green, and come with an LED-powered dangling charm to let ladies know if the phone in their purse was getting calls. We even heard thatwomen-centric dieting and shopping apps would come along for the ride.

This was unsettling.

Joanna Stern of TIMN felt the same way I did, writing:

To be honest, we’ve had a really hard time believing some of this information — not because there’s anything here that’s technically impossible or because we didn’t trust our source, but because we simply can’t imagine a company creating a phone specifically for American women in this day and age (it reminds us of the Petticoat 5 spoof).

Even our own Sarah Perez tagged her own thoughts to the end of her leak post:

What bothers me about the idea of a “girl’s” Android phone is that somehow my gender has different needs and expectations than their male counterparts do when it comes to smartphones. Colored devices and cell phone charms are not necessarily “womanly” things – they may appeal to a younger demographic, or to those who concern themselves with appearances, perhaps. But that doesn’t mean only women.

I second, +1, and “Like” all that was said. And what’s worse (that these ladies neglected to touch on) is that the phone itself wasn’t* all that great. By no means was it a “bad” phone, but the specs we heard about were average and likely to be outdated a few months later. With a single-core 1GHz processor and a 3.7-inch WVGA touchscreen, Sense 3.5 can’t really make up for what is very clearly a mid-range Android device.

So why target something mediocre towards women? Because we don’t know what kind of processors we should want? Because we don’t enjoy beautiful, large touchscreens? I was at a loss.

*I continue to use the past tense in this section as I’m referring to rumors, and what we knew then.

Revamp:

No doubt whatsoever, HTC saw the reaction. Many tech bloggers are male, so of course it wasn’t as fiercely disputed by the boys as it was by us woman-folk, but the reaction seemed pretty collective and HTC heard what was being said, which was: “Are you guys really doing this?”

As the launch announcement drew closer and closer, specs, press shots, and even pictures of the accessories were leaked, and it looked like not much had changed from the info in the original rumors. The only new information we got on the Bliss was an invitation to the launch event (that happened this morning), in which HTC didn’t actually disclose the product they were announcing.

But from the way that things were worded here in New York, this phone isn’t just for women. HTC was super serious about not using any female-centric words or pronouns once during the entire thing. In fact, they made a push to say that this phone was for “everyone.”

I even asked an HTC rep at the event why we had heard no mention of women during the announcement. He robotically replied that this phone is for “everyone,” and that the Rhyme is more about following you through your daily life than being catered to a specific gender.

Words vs. actions is an interesting thing, isn’t it?

To be quite honest, not much has changed from what we had thought, save for a couple last minute switcharoos. The Bliss is now the Rhyme, which I guess has a bit of a more masculine feel to it than Bliss does, but not by much. Then there’s the “calming” sea foam green we had all expected, which has changed over to a dark plum color. Again, not too much of a shift toward “unisex” here either, but I guess it’s a small step in the right direction. And those dieting/shopping apps that were probably the most insulting part of the whole thing? Those are no where to be found, which is an entirely welcome announcement after all those rumors.

But that silly purse-friendly charm is still alive and well, and even worse it glows pink. That same rep mentioned how men could hang the charm out of their work-out bag when they’re at the gym, but that seems like more of a hassle than a step towards making life easier. Purple may be a step up from a light shade of green, but still doesn’t scream “A man’s man should own this phone!”

My point? HTC listened to the rants in the rumor phase, and in my opinion they at least attempted(albeit weakly) to calm the storm. By never actually saying that the phone was designed for women, HTC can technically get itself off the hook. The problem is that no man will buy a phone that comes with a “charm,” so no matter how much they say the phone is for “everyone,” it just takes a quick glance at the Rhyme to see how misleading that is.

Repeat:

Purposeful leaks aren’t unheard of. Not only do leaks build hype around a phone, but they give the developers a chance to gauge our first reactions. HTC didn’t do an excellent job of nixing all the obviously girl-centered features of this phone, but in small ways you can tell that we were heard.

My hope is that HTC, and every other phone maker, will pay attention to the coverage of their products before announcement. Whether the rumor itself is true or false, anonymous internet commenters give the most brutally honest feedback you could ask for. Take the hints.

more.

Microsoft And Nokia Release Windows Phone Porting Guides For Symbian Developers

Microsoft and Nokia have teamed up on a package of new tools aimed at getting Nokia developers prepared for the transition to Windows Phone. Announced today are three jointly developed tools and guides, the most notable being the addition of Symbian Qt to the Windows Phone API mapping tool.

The Windows Phone mapping tool, which already supports iOS and Android, serves as a translation dictionary between the Windows Phone platform and other mobile operating systems. With it, developers can pick out the API calls in their apps, then look up the equivalent classes, methods and notification events in Windows Phone.

To be clear, this is not a direct porting tool – it doesn’t do the work for you. Developers can simply reference the guide to aid in porting their applications.

Included in the mapping tool are the core libraries for Qt 4.7 for Symbian (QtCore, QtGui, QtLocation, QtNetwork, QtSensors, QtSql, QtXml, QtWebKit, QML Elements and QML Components). Sample code and tutorials are available, too.

Microsoft and Nokia have also released a 100-page white paper to serve as the de facto guide for Symbian Qt Application Developers interested in learning about Windows Phone. Within its 8 chapters, the companies detail Windows Phone guidelines, C# programming, the application life cycle, porting procedures and more.

Today also heralds the start of a series of developer events called the “Nokia Windows Phone Training” roadshow, with the first event being held in Paris. The events will then be held throughout Europe and Australia on the following days: Milan, Italy (Sept 26), Madrid, Spain (Sept 29), Berlin, Germany (Oct 4), London, United Kingdom (Oct 10), Sydney (Sept 24-25[SOLD OUT], Oct 8-9), Melbourne (Oct 8-9[SOLD OUT, wait list]) and Brisbane (Oct 8-9).

The U.S. dates, including the Silicon Valley dates, are not yet available.

Symbian isn’t a dead operating system just yet – after all, it received a big update just last month. But Nokia has publicly stated it plans to phase it out over time. Windows Phone is what’s next for Nokia, and it’s not surprising to see these tools and guides launch just prior to the release of the first Nokia Windows Phone, expected by year-end.

more.

A Look At Who’s Winning The Global Internet Speed Race [Infographic]

In July, we covered a study released by Pando Networks, a digital download delivery company, that outlined some striking disparities in the current quality of internet access and speed across the U.S. Among the study’s more revealing findings was the size of the gap between those at the front of the pack in terms of connectivity speeds and those at the back — a difference of tenfold. Interestingly, Rhode Island came in as the state with the fastest download speeds, compared to Idaho which brought up the rear with an average speed of 318KBps.

Today, Pando Networks has released another study that reveals the speed and reliability not just of the U.S. but of the global landscape in an attempt to provide a comprehensive look at the accessibility of the world’s data. Interestingly, the average global download speed is 580KBps, showing among other things that Idaho’s speed pales in comparison to worldwide average. But what may come as a surprise to some is that the U.S. ranked in at 26th with an average speed of 616KBps, compared to South Korea, the world speed champion, which came in with a blinding average speed of 2,202KBps.

Coming in behind South Korea are the surprise runners-up: The small eastern European nations of Romania at 1,909KBps and Bulgaria at 1,611KBps. Bet you didn’t see that coming. Especially considering that North America is so far down the list in comparison to eastern European nations, which dominated the rankings with Lithuania coming in fourth at 1,462KBps, Latvia in fifth at 1,377KBps, and Ukraine in eight at 1,190KBps. Compare this to the U.S. in 26th place, Canada in 31st, and Mexico in 86th.

In terms of the completion rate for measured downloads, Pando’s study found that they were closely correlated with average speeds, with South Korea again taking the cake with a 94 percent completion rate. closely correlates with average speed, South Korea again taking top prize with a 94% completion rate and most of the other speedy countries not far behind.

Developing nations in Africa and Asia unsurprisingly brought up the back of the pack, with the Congo showing the slowest average speed at 13KBps, the Central African Republic at 14KBps, and Comoros at 23KBps. (Other countries of note include China at 245KBps and Australia at 348KBps.)

Also of not is the study’s breakdown of global data to the city level, which yet again found that the fastest six cities are located in South Korea. Andover, Massachusetts and Bucharest, Romania were the only two cities outside of the gaming powerhouse South Korea to slide into the top 10.

Obviously, on a global level, just as it is with the U.S., the disparities between the fastest and slowest countries is jaw-dropping. Not to mention that one might expect developed countries like the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, China, and Canada to round out the top 5, while none of them even managed to break the top 20. Instead, as CEO of Pando Networks Robert Levitan said, the fastest speeds were found in markets like Eastern Europe, where “focus on infrastructure development and favorable geography promote an incredible level of connectivity”.

For more, check out Pando’s nifty infographic below or visit Pando at home here.

more.

Verizon CEO: A Third Mobile Platform Will Emerge In The Next 12 Months

iOS and Android are great, clearly. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have room in our hearts for a third platform. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam feels the same way, expecting a third “smartphone ecosystem” to butt in to the current Apple/Google dominated space.

Out of the various options, McAdam said he sees Samsung’s Bada, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.5, or RIM’s forthcoming QNX-based BlackBerry platform to fill the spot. “The carriers are beginning to coalesce around the need for a third ecosystem,” said McAdam. “Over the next 12 months I think it will coalesce and you will start to see one emerge as a legitimate third ecosystem.” In my opinion, it’ll be between RIM and Microsoft, and I expect Microsoft to come out victorious.

As far as QNX is concerned, RIM will have to bring something other than messaging to the table. Messaging, whether it be through email or BBM or text, is the BlackBerry’s stand-out feature. Any BlackBerry owner I’ve ever grilled says messaging can’t be beat, but it only takes a couple minutes perusing through Android devices with a physical keyboard to realize that BlackBerry messaging isn’t worth everything you’re missing out on.

That’s not to say that I think Android phones are better messaging devices; RIM still owns the space. All I’m saying is that Android offers up messaging that works just fine, but with a million other features that are no where to be seen on a BlackBerry. And if that’s not enough, messaging in Windows Phone Mango is absolutely killer. Each contact is its own thread, and whether you’re chatting it up on Facebook, in texts, in emails, basically anything, Mango threads it all together into one cohesive conversation. Add to that speech-to-text capabilities and Mango is an easy sell.

Since messaging is the primary activity on most phones, the way it works in this or that OS is incredibly consequential. Even with share prices at a five-year low, BlackBerry users are still around and they’re just as loyal as they’ve ever been. That’s almost always a product of the line’s messaging power.

After giving us a 12-month time frame for this third platform emergence, McAdam also touched on the current legal battle between the Department of Justice and AT&T, reports Fierce Wireless. In all honesty, it not only affects Verizon and McAdam, but it really will make a difference (however minute) in all of our lives.

As far as McAdam is concerned, the most important thing he can do right now is pay very close attention to whether or not the outcome of the AT&T/DOJ suit will have any affect on Verizon. “I think it’s important to be thoughtful about this,” McAdam said.

more.

Next Week Or Two”

File this one under “It’s about time” — Microsoft has announced today that they intended to roll out their Windows Phone 7.5 (a.k.a “Mango”) update to current devices within “the next week or two.”

Sure, it’s still not an exact date, but Microsoft has a good reason for this: they can’t really provide one. According to Eric Hautala, General Manager for Customer Experience Engineering, Microsoft will push out the update, and each hardware partner will deliver a matching firmware specifically tuned for the Windows Phone it’s being pushed out to.

Since the process relies on software components from Microsoft and OEMs like HTC and Samsung, I wouldn’t expect the floodgates to open for all devices at the same time. Considering that an entire slice of the smartphone market will be getting a update of the course of a few weeks, a rolling release is probably more likely to ease the process.

Oh, and a quick warning to hackers and enthusiasts alike: Hautala was also quick to point out that anyone looking to make the official Mango jump should do well to stay away from pre-release or unofficial software builds. He doesn’t go into specifics, but it seems as though working with unofficial firmware could cause some unpleasantness when the official update tries to install.

While still vague, Microsoft’s annoucement is a huge improvement over what AT&T had to say a few weeks ago: when they announced their new line of Mango-powered Windows Phones, they also casually mentioned that the Mango update itself would begin rolling out to devices sometime “this fall.” If you just can’t wait to get your hands on Mango, feel free to mash F5 on Microsoft’s Where’s My Phone Update? page. If all goes well, the update will be pushed to your phone before the carpal tunnel sets in.

more.

Wyse Releases New Version Of Cloud Storage App PocketCloud

Wyse Technology, the developers of cloud storage app PocketCloud, is launching a new version of its service today, which turns smartphones and tablets into virtual desktops by letting you control anything on your PC from a mobile device. PocketCloud utilizes customers’ existing storage on their Mac, PC and virtual desktops rather than storing files on third-party servers. Wyse’s personal cloud costs $1 per month for unlimited storage.

With other services once a user’s files are uploaded to the cloud, control of the privacy and security of this data becomes the responsibility of a third party. Wyse provides remote access to files securely stored on users’ devices and does not limit either the number or type of files that can be shared between personal devices.

The new version of PocketCloud allows unlimited file sharing, of any file type between your iPhone and iPad and your computer for only just $1 a month. So you can link devices, and share music and other files between these devices. PocketCloud also includes support for OS X (Lion) user account authentication, and support for iPad 2 video mirroring.

Wyse claims that they are able to give you much of the same functionality as Amazon, DropBox and others at a fraction of the cost. But with Apple’s upcoming iCloud launch soon, we’ll see if PocketCloud can retain users, especially for iOS.

more.

Nvidia Reveals Kal-El’s Secret Fifth Core For Ultra-Low-Power Tasks

There has been a lot of whispering about Nvidia’s next-generation Tegra chip, code-named Kal-El (Superman’s Kryptonian name, for the uninitiated), since it was first detailed on a roadmap back in Februrary. But it hasn’t shown up quite yet in any actual handsets or tablets, though we’re told it has been adopted by the majors and will have its debut soon.

Nvidia today released some new informationabout the SoC that confirms Tegra’s status as the brand to beat in the mobile computing world. Turns out it’s not quad-core, it’s penta-core. And the “companion core” is designed to take over while all the others go to sleep.

As you have probably suspected, load balancing and optimizing processor use is important to the battery life of many devices. The screen is usually a bigger draw, but with demand for CPU- and GPU-intensive content rising, the portion of a battery used for that processing is as well. But when you’re not playing games or watching HD movies on your phone, those high-power cores don’t operate as efficiently as one designed for low-power, low-priority tasks. So Nvidia put another one on the die, a low-power optimized core, that takes over for mundane things like notification monitoring while the phone is inactive, low-bandwidth stuff like e-reading, and so on.

Nvidia explains it all in this handy diagram, though be on the watch for self-congratulatory jargon (“console-class gaming” isn’t an industry standard term):

It’s a bit like having a city car and a hot rod in your garage. You don’t want to drive your Aston Martin in bumper-to-bumper traffic. That’s why you have a Civic too, or perhaps a Leaf. Same here. Why use ten times the CPU power necessary to perform a simple task?

You can read the rest in Nvidia’s whitepaper (PDF), but take it with a grain of salt, because TI might have some tricks up its sleeve, and even Intel might be creeping up.

more.

Google Sites Now Allows You To Create A Mobile Landing Page

Google has long offered Google Sites, which gives businesses and consumers a way to quickly build their own websites with no HTML knowledge required, making it relatively easy for anyone without a technical background to build a simple website. Until now, the platform has not had a mobile component. Today, Google is launching new functionality in Sites that allows users to create a simple mobile landing page for free.

Similar to templates for Google Sites web pages, Sites for Mobile allows users to pick a template that suits the consumer’s needs. For example, Sites offers and e-commerce template for users who want a mobile site to sell products (via Google Checkout). Google also offers customer mobile templates for local businesses, restaurants, lead generation and social.

On these mobile sites, businesses and users can include the ability to integrate their Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social accounts. Users can also feature the phone number, directions to their business, coupons, menus and more. Businesses can also get analytics on traffic to their mobile sites.

Google says that mobile sites can be deployed within minutes. Google tells us that one in five search queries in retail are on mobile phone, and most of these queries are for local availability. Allowing local retailers and businesses to quickly deploy a mobile site made sense.

Considering the local element, it would make sense for some sort of integration with Google Places. But Google says that they have not yet determined how the search giant is planning to add these mobile sites to Places.

more.

Google Says Mobile Optimized Sites Will Factor Into Landing Page Quality And Perform Better In AdWords

Google is announcing today that websites that are optimized for mobile will now factor into ad quality. The company says that last year it began to limit ad serving on smartphone devices if they pointed to landing pages with Flash-heavy content, in order to improve the experience for users. Now the search giant will be considering the mobile optimization of a website as a new factor of mobile ads quality for all AdWords campaigns that are driving mobile traffic.

As a result of this change, ads that have mobile optimized landing pages will perform better in AdWords and drive more traffic. The core guidelines for landing page quality apply across devices (on desktop and on mobile) but this consideration will only affect AdWords on mobile devices.

For background, Google’s landing page quality for mobile sites factors in site navigability, simple layout, content prioritization, mobile features, touch features, minimal flash, landing page load time. Landing page quality is one of several factors that determine an advertiser’s keywords’ Quality Scores.

As Google says, a poor mobile web experience can negatively shape a consumer’s opinion of a brand or company and make it hard for them to engage or make a purchase. In fact, 61% of users are unlikely to return to a website that they had trouble accessing from their phone.

Unsurprisingly, Google is pushing its own mobile site creator, through Google Sites, on publishers and site owners who want to create a simple mobile website. Considering the holiday shopping season is getting closer, retailers may want to be sure their sites fit into Google’s landing page guidelines. Certainly, this year more than ever, holiday shoppers will be using their mobile phones for search and purchasing.

more.