Walmart is testing out a new 'Scan & Go' app which could mean you'll never have to line up at one of its checkouts ever again.

Retail giant Walmart is apparently testing out a new iPhone app which allows shoppers to scan items as they move around the store, bagging them up as they go. Payment is made at an automated checkout – as opposed to via the handset – once all the shopping’s done.

Reuters reports that tests of Walmart’s ‘Scan & Go’ system are currently being carried out at just one store – a supercenter in Rogers, Arkansas, close to the company’s headquarters. Store staff, as well as their friends, have been asked to take part in the 60-minute trial sessions, with $100 cash and a $25 gift card offered in exchange for their time.

Long lines at the checkout are of course one of the main sources of frustration for today’s shoppers. New technology has allowed many big stores to do away with checkout staff in favor of automated checkouts, but even though many of these may be open at one time, lines still form during busy times. Scan & Go may be one way to get shoppers in and out the door in super-fast time. Unless you get caught in a line of people waiting to pay, that is.

“We’re continually testing new and innovative ways to serve customers and enhance the shopping experience in our stores,” Walmart spokesman David Tovar told Reuters.

Commenting on Walmart’s Scan & Go system, Paul Weitzel, managing partner at retail consulting firm Willard Bishop, said, “All of the effort is to speed your way through the checkout so that we can reduce costs and improve the shopping experience. With smartphones and improved technology we’re only going to see more of this.”

It’s not clear what security measures are in place with the system – for example, what would stop an unscrupulous shopper from ‘accidentally’ failing to scan an item before slipping it into a bag in their cart?

Walmart already has a smartphone app available, though its functionality is limited to things like allowing shoppers to make lists and giving information on which items are in stock.

How do you like the sound of scanning as you shop? Or would you like to see a return to the days when the only way to pay for your goods meant interacting with a human being?

According to reports, Amazon is planning to unveil two versions of its upgraded Kindle Fire tablet next week – one regular model and a cheaper version supported by ads.

As has already been reported, Amazon is holding an event next Thursday in Santa Monica where it’s widely expected the e-commerce giant will unveil its next-generation Kindle Fire tablet, and possibly a brand new e-reader, or updated Touch.

The latest news, reported by the Wall Street Journal, is that the company will apparently launch not one but two Kindle Fire tablets next week – one regular model, and one ad-supported model, sold at a price even more competitive than the original Fire (ie. under $199).

The ad-supported ‘Special Offers’ platform has been a feature of its range of e-readers for a while now, allowing buyers of the device to make a saving in exchange for having ads displayed on the screen. The basic ad-supported Kindle e-reader can be picked up for $79, that’s $30 less than the no-ads model.

Cnet reported on Friday that the upgraded Kindle Fire will incorporate “more hardware improvements, including a faster processor, a camera, physical volume controls, and an HDMI port. It will also have larger storage capacity, but it will still not be expandable.” This according to “a person who has seen the products”

Google’s recently released 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet, like the Fire also priced at $199, has caught the eye of many consumers, and so with its second-generation tablet Amazon will hope a cheaper ad-supported device with more bells and whistles will help it to regain the initiative at the lower end of the tablet market.

In other news, talk of a 10-inch Fire to compete with Apple’s 9.7-inch iPad appears to be fading, with Cnet reporting that plans for a larger device have been shelved, at least for now.

With Apple also expected to unveil an iPad Mini in the coming weeks, consumers on the hunt for a tablet this holiday season are certain to be spoiled for choice. Would an ad-supported Kindle Fire for, say, $169 be of interest to you?

Apple's latest update to iOS 6 beta includes a redesign of its App Store search layout -- a move that has Apple-acquired Chomp's name all over it.

Apple’s App Store is getting a makeover. The redesigned mobile marketplace first showed up this week in the beta version of iOS 6, the final version of which is expected to launch along side the sixth-generation iPhone sometime in the second half of September. The App Store will give each searched-for app its own “card” — a design change that has app search and discovery platform Chomp all over it. 

Back in February Apple scooped up Chomp for $100 million cash, a deal that transferred the 20 person team and Chomp’s technology to Apple. The iOS 6 update to the App Store, as first reported by Jail Break Nation, is the first look that we’re getting of Chomp and its technology’s integration into Apple. The most noticeable parallel to Chomp is the card-like interface that can be navigated by swiping from top to bottom. In iOS 5, Apple displays search results in a list format that shows users the app’s icon, rating, and price. Those characteristics remain the same. What’s different, however, are the first screen shots of each application that are prominently displayed as a preview within each card.

Behind the scenes, it’s evident that the far more robust algorithm provided by Chomp’s technology has been adopted by Apple. The current version of Apple’s App Store search engine returns different results, compared to iOS 6 (as Jail Break Nation shows us in the video). Apps that would otherwise appear as recommendations in iOS 5 are not present in the iOS 6 results.

With the introduction of the new App Store, the enhanced algorithm could spell trouble for existing developers and their businesses. Topping the App Store charts (particularly cracking the top 25 to reach the front page of searches) is imperative to an app’s success. So those hit by the new search algorithm have some worrying to do. Then again, this wouldn’t be the first time that Apple has been changing its algorithm, and just as Google tweaks its search algorithm on a regular basis, it surely won’t be the last.

Chomp may also offer Apple something else altogether: the confidence in its recommendation engine. The Genius Recommendations button was finally released in the latest update to the App Store’s beta and appears on the navigation bar at the very bottom of the App Store’s interface. This button recommends new apps that Apple users may be interested in downloading based on the analysis of the apps that have already been downloaded onto their Apple device.

Check out the video of the new App Store below, and let us know your thoughts about the new interface.

Zynga has reportedly hired online gambling veteran Maytal Ginzburg to run its real-money gambling ventures.

Zynga has turned its ambitions to online real-money gambling as its stock prices have slumped to a near-all time low today amid doubt about its profitability with existing social games. But its latest hire, first noticed by Social Casino Intelligence, indicates that Zynga is in fact full steam ahead with its plans for real-money gambling.

In a smart move, Zynga has managed to snag Maytal Ginzburg, former Senior Vice President of Regulated and Corporate Markets for 888 Holdings, as its new real-money gambling chief.

If you’re not familiar with 888 Holdings, the company is among the largest online gambling holding companies in the world, and is responsible for its 888-branded games including 888 Sport, 888 Bingo, 888 Poker, 888 Casino, and platforms that were released earlier in 888’s existence including Casino-On-Net and Pacific Poker.

Zynga has been plagued by turnarounds as its stock has dropped into dangerous territory. Yesterday, an anonymous source told Bloomberg that Bill Mooney, vice president of studios and general manager of Farmville, and Brian Birtwistle, Zynga’s vice president of marketing, had resigned. These departures have been just among the steady stream of executives and other employees heading for higher ground.

Zynga’s Hail Mary is the reported real-money gambling site Zynga Poker, which launches in early 2013 for users in the United Kingdom. Zynga Poker will be competing for the U.K. market with other sharks in a tank chock full of online gambling veterans, which include bwin, Poker Stars, PartyGaming, and of course 888. It’s treacherous waters for a neophyte like Zynga to navigate, but Ginzburg’s confidence in the social and design qualities of social gaming could influence Zynga to take a different route and target a different demographic of real-money players altogether.

The majority of poker sites that exist today seek to attract a higher caliber of players, and offer more competitive and interesting styles of game play for experienced players. Such sites typically sport its roster of endorsements by top professional gamblers, thereby attracting the serious online gamblers. Zynga, with Ginzburg’s direction, will likely target the casual poker players, who would rather be playing for the experience than to make a quick buck.

“We want to attract players who will play for casual entertainment, and we therefore needed to deliver social platforms that are easy to use yet provide all the interactive features users expect,” Ginzburg told Inside Poker Business.

The details surrounding Zynga’s real-money gambling platform have been sparse, but we do know the cost of launching such a venture are significant. In Nevada, one of the few places in the U.S. that allows online gambling, companies must pay between $1 million and $1.3 million for an online gambling license, according to a source close to Digital Trends. Overseas, the licenses alone could be anywhere between $500,000 and over $1 million depending on the jurisdiction.

Building out a gambling platform from the ground up is a labor-intensive and costly process. Not surprisingly, the social gaming giant has been shopping around for partners with existing real-money gambling platforms. But then navigating the minefield of licenses, partnerships, and regulations is a task that, without Ginzburg, would likely be over Zynga’s heads.

A demo session with a feature complete version of Fable: The Journey shows that there's great potential in the Kinect adventure.

I’ll give you the same disclosure I gave Fable: The Journey creative director Gary Carr: I have never played a full Kinect game. I messed around with the early Project Natal demos back in 2009, but an actual, finished Kinect game? Never done it. I tell you this so you know that I went into my demo of Fable: The Journey last week with no expectations whatsoever.

Was I skeptical that an adventure game like Fable was suited to hands-free motion control and guided levels rather than free-roaming exploration? Definitely. Am I still skeptical? Sure. Is The Journey entertaining even in just a quick demo? Absolutely.

To catch you up, The Journey picks up 50 years after Fable III. Despite your revolutionary efforts in that game, Albion looks just as medieval and goblin-infested (or hob-infested as the case may be). This time around you play as Gabriel, one of the Dwellers, Albion’s fantasy version of the Romani people. Since he’s a fantasy gypsy, Gabriel doesn’t have the inherent magical skills that the fated heroes of past Fable games do. After getting separated from his family and swept up in immortal sorceress Theresa’s goings on, Gabriel receives a pair of magic gloves that let him toss all kinds of magic.

A swift tutorial through an ice and crystal covered cave introduces you to Gabe’s powers. It works like this: Raising your right hand and pushing forward will toss an energy ball. If you flick your right hand after throwing it, the ball will automatically whiplash and hit the nearest enemy. If you hold your right hand in place waving it back and forth, your energy ball becomes a much stronger fireball. Holding your right hand at your shoulder still will conjure an even more powerful spear to throw.

Raising your left hand and pushing will let you Obi Wan Kenobi it up and force push bad guys away. Holding your left arm out connects a magical tether to enemies letting you toss them around. This brings some nuance into fights. When you’re fighting against a bunch of skeleton warriors, the quickest route to victory is tethering them and popping off their limbs one by one. You can also block by holding your left arm up in front of you, natural as a shield. Dodging is just a matter of leaning right and left.

If that sounds like a lot to remember, it is, especially when a large group of enemies is bearing down on you. The Journey is best described as a cross between an old-fashioned lightgun game like Virtua Cop and a fighting game like Street Fighter. You have to pay attention to the environment directly in front of you while assessing what of your limited moves will best help you overcome your enemies. Both those styles of games require precision and quick decision making though.

Lionshead’s game impressively allows for both. When the moves didn’t work in the game it was almost always because I was rushing and not being specific with my motions. The Journey also allows for decent improvisation. The second level I played through was a mine where an enormous rock monster boss was waiting at the end. As you fought him, deflecting back giant rocks and tossing fire, skeletons would pop and advance. What do you do? Should I dodge to the far right and focus on the boss, or can I move fast enough to dismember these undead goons while also tossing boulders back at the boss? This sort of blend of physical challenge with classic video game problem solving delivers on that early promise of the Kinect.

At least in this sliver of the game. Carr told me during our demo that the game is 10 to 15 hours long. I played for a mere 20 minutes. The on-rails lightgun shooters and fighting games I compared The Journey to are brief games, played in short burst sessions, but Lionhead wants this to be a lengthy, deep adventure. It’s impossible to say how it stacks up in that regard based on this sample.

Is it funny like Fable? Couldn’t tell you. How’s the art? All I saw was a mine and a magic ice cavern. Throw in a forest and it would be every fantasy game ever. Does the action continue evolving or is it just a game of push and pull for 20 hours? Carr promised exploration areas but none were demoed.

Fable: The Journey was an impressive first experience with a complete Kinect game, but it has many questions to answer before it releases in October.

Microsoft released a video this week committing their support to GaymerCon, the first LGBT gaming convention.

As summer comes to a close, let us toast it hottest trend: Major corporations in the video game industry coming out in support of the LGBT community. Microsoft was the latest to throw its support behind gay and lesbian gamers on Thursday when it released a video announcing its support of GaymerCon, the world’s first LGBT tech and gaming convention.

As of this writing, GaymerCon is just about to complete its funding campaign on Kickstarter. It’s raised nearly $86,000, more than triple its initial goal of $25,000. The convention will be held in San Francisco, California in August 2013.

“It’s a great opportunity to bring people together, about a common cause and common background, and see what comes of it,” says Xbox Live Program Manager Nell.

Why do gay and lesbian gamers need their own convention and why is it great the Microsoft is supporting them through Xbox Live? Because gay and lesbian gamers have to deal with constant persecution from small-minded, cruel twits on Xbox Live. Calling someone a homo because you beat them in Halo makes you a bad person, Xbox Live users.

Microsoft joins Electronic Arts, who publicly spoke out again the Defense of Marriage Act in July.

Steam Greenlight didn't have the best first day as Valve is forced to ban people posting fake, racist, and copycat projects.

Valve is many things in addition to being a video game maker. It’s savvy, in business and in design. It’s optimistic. It’s also woefully naïve.

When the company announced it would open Steam Greenlight in July, it seemed to believe that people using the service would be reasonable, driven creators looking to grow legitimate projects. “Developers post information, screenshots, and videos for their game and seek a critical mass of community support,” was how Valve described Greenlight. It would be a video game-focused, Kickstarter-style crowd support tool built right into Steam for established game playing audience of 54 million. The utopian vision of a creator-fueled gaming market was here, free of the need to pledge cold cash up front!

Valve forgot the golden rule in creating Greenlight, though: People are jerks.

Within hours of Steam Greenlight opening on Friday, the service was flooded with fake projects, copycats of existing titles, and deeply offensive projects. The first day of Valve’s utopian business model turned into an Internet troll holiday.

Steam user Satoru said on Friday morning that within the span of a single hour, he’d seen Left 4 Dead 3, five versions of Half-Life 3, two versions of Mass Effect 3, every Need For Speed game made, Command & Conquer, and Condemned sitting alongside racist games targeting black Americans as well as Indians. He also spotted a 9/11 game called Best WTC Plane Simulator.

Valve’s doing the only thing it can: Banning users en masse. Anyone caught creating bum Steam Greenlight projects will be blocked from Steam community services for one week.

As of this writing, the Greenlight homepage has been cleared of some detritus. When Eurogamer reported on the problem early on Friday, there were games in the running that were just pictures of Russian kids. Now there are only a handful of rip-offs like an entry for La Mulana.

The question: As more businesses look to introduce community support services like Greenlight, will those businesses have to police those services as a rule? Can people really not be relief on to behave themselves?

Celebrate Final Fantasy's quarter life crisis with a box set of every single main game from Final Fantasy 1 to 13!

Hironobu Sakaguchi named his first role-playing game Final Fantasy back in 1987 because the guy thought, after this, no matter video games. Squaresoft had done okay for itself, banging out a couple of decent NES and MSX games like Rad Racer and Alien, but it wasn’t working out. The Gooch was playing a whole lot of Dragon Quest in those days and thought, I bet I can do that, so he, artist Yoshitaka Amano, composer Nobuo Uematsu, programmer Nasir Gebelli, and a few other young turks made what was supposed to be his magnum opus. A final fantasy. Then the game blew up huge, received 13 sequels, those sequels got sequels, there were spin-offs, movies, toys, trading cards, and soda. Sakaguchi hasn’t worked on a Final Fantasy in 11 years and the series just keeps plugging away.

25 years after that first game, Square-Enix is hosting a massive anniversary event for the series in Japan. While the big announcements come tomorrow—Square’s expected to announce Final Fantasy XIII-3. Ugh.—there was some news to be had on Friday.

First, Square announced the Final Fantasy 25^th Anniversary Ultimate Box. The collector’s site, all but guaranteed to remain a Japan exclusive, includes every single main Final Fantasy in some form on disc. The platform choices alone will restrict who can actually play the set. Final Fantasy I through IX are the PlayStation 1 releases of those games, complete with fancy CG cinemas from the late ‘90s. Technically anyone with a PS3 can play those. The sole exception in that line up is Final Fantasy III, which comes as a PSP UMD. Final Fantasy X through XII come as PlayStation 2 discs, which are useless to contemporary PlayStation 3 owners. Final Fantasy 11 PS2 can’t even be played online! Final Fantasy XIII meanwhile plays just fine on a PS3.

That torrent of melodrama and swords also comes with Crystal ArtWorks, a collection of images from the series, an anniversary documentary, a 2-disc soundtrack, and a download code for some earrings in Final Fantasy XIV.

To reiterate: No way does that box set make it to the US.

That wasn’t all. Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada took the stage to promise people that the Final Fantasy series isn’t over. No duh, sir. He also said though that Final Fantasy Versus XIII is still in production. It’s the game that refused to die!

Happy 25^th birthday, Final Fantasy. Let’s all move on to Final Fantasy XV!

Electronic Arts' Frank Gibeau says that proprietary technology like the Frostbite Engine will help his company not repeat past mistakes.

Electronic Arts may have reached its financial nadir. Stock in the Madden NFL 13 publisher is trading above $13 as of this writing, up from this year’s 14-year low beneath $11, but still down more than 50 percent from where it started the calendar year. This is during a period when some of EA’s most profitable properties are still showing growth. Madden NFL 13 sold 900,000 copies in its first day on shelves, a 7 percent boost over 2011. Who says that EA’s audience has reached its saturation point?

As EA has watched its market cap plummet from more than $18 billion at the end of 2007 to just over $4 billion today, it has spent gobs of capital trying to recover. It’s spent billions developing new intellectual property that failed (Mirror’s Edge), excellent games with outdated business models (Star Wars: The Old Republic), and it’s acquired dozens of studios in a bid to diversify (PopCap). Digital revenue’s grown, mobile revenue has grown, even EA’s console game business has stayed steady but none of it’s been enough.

Free-to-play games and cross-platform play are two pillars in EA’s plans for the future. A tripod is more stable though, so what will be EA’s third leg? Proprietary engine technology according to EA labels chief Frank Gibeau. Rather than spend huge sums on developing new technology for each game or licensing engines like Crytek’s CryEngine or Epic’s Unreal Engine 4, EA’s Dice-developed Frostbite engine will be the money-saving, revenue-generating machine that EA has lacked in the last console generation.

“[Frostbite] is tailor made for next-gen hardware, so we’re in really good shape from a technology standpoint, which is where we had our misstep last time,” Gibeau told Bloomberg (via Gamasutra) in a new interview.

When John Riccitiello took over as Electronic Arts CEO at the beginning of this console cycle, he emphasized the creation of new intellectual property as the key to success. The failure of games like Dante’s Inferno, Bulletstorm and Mirror’s Edge as well as the middling success of others like Dead Space and Army of Two has led some to say that EA’s pursuit of success through AAA IP is a losing strategy.

Gibeau says that Frostbite will allow EA to more carefully invest in new IP. “We’ve already started 3 to 5 IPs that we’re going to launch in those first 24 months of the next generation. EA Sports is there with all of its power, and you also see some really big brands like Battlefield coming out.”

EA appears to have covered its bases. Gamers should brace for a future where they pay for EA games in small, constant increments. EA’s shareholders should expect a turn around, if not a return to the glory days, because of that change.

Bethesda gave an update on the PlayStation version of Skyrim DLC Dawnguard on Friday and the outlook isn't good.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim players on PlayStation 3 may need to accept an unpleasant truth in the near future: The game you have is the only game you get. Your Dragonborn may not ever get to build a house or start a family with Hearthfire. The vampires already hanging out in the caves of your Skyrim are the only vampires you’ll get to fight or turn into, because expansion Dawnguard may not ever come to the PS3.

Bethesda’s been quiet about Dawnguard’s release beyond the Xbox 360 version that came out in July, and it turns out that the company wasn’t just being cagey. Dawnguard is proving a sticky wicket to fit into Sony’s console. In a post on Bethesda’s official forums the developer explained that technical issues are preventing  the expansion from running properly on PS3.

“Skyrim is a massive and dynamic game that requires a lot of resources, and things get much more complex when you’re talking about sizable content like Dawnguard,” reads the statement, “We have tried a number of things, but nonw of solve the issue enough to make Dawnguard good for everyone. The PS3 is a powerful system, and we’re working hard to deliver the content you guys want. Dawnguard is obviously not the only DLC we’ve been working on either, so this issue of adding content gets even more complicated.”

“This is not a problem we’re positive we can solve, but we are working together with Sony to try to bring you this content.”

Back on Jul. 30, Bethesda hit Twitter to explain that no announcement of Dawnguard for other platforms had been made but that new content like mounted combat would come to PS3 with Skyrim patch 1.7.

Dawnguard’s problems on PlayStation 3 are none too surprising. When the game released last November, the PlayStation 3 version was plagued by frequent game crashes and crippling slowdown. The root of the problem is the way Skyrim games were saved on the console. Save files could grow to over 6MB as play time extended in the game. While patches for the game have eased those problems, the addition of Dawnguard no doubt exacerbates the original problem.

Bethesda has always had problems getting its games to run on the PlayStation 3. Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion all struggled as ports. That Bethesda is working hard to remedy these issues on the platform at all is impressive though. The game’s already sold well on the platform, more than 4 million copies worldwide, far more than the superior PC edition.

Facebook’s list of advertising offerings is getting bigger. Inside Facebook reported Thursday that some Power Editor users were temporarily granted access to a new Facebook advertising function. The feature allows businesses to upload individual or sets of contact information to create an advertising audience. This provides a new way for advertisers to use information they’ve collected from users in the past, and marry it with that user’s Facebook profile. Advertisers can use email addresses, Facebook user IDs, or phone numbers in search of their audience. TechCrunch reports that the features have been tested by some and that they will be rolled out to “managed” advertisers next week.

In terms of security, Facebook states on the feature’s page that any information uploaded by the advertiser would be hashed, or encoded, so that Facebook will not be able to use it, and will not have additional usable data about users. Businesses will not be provided any additional user data in the process either, just the ability to target those specific users with tailored advertisements. Businesses will further be able to refine the audience for these ads by selecting specific demographic groups based on gender, age or other characteristics.

Businesses will find a myriad uses for this feature. Its core functionality is that it is no longer limited to targeting advertisements based on qualifiers Facebook (you) allows them to select. An advertiser could use phone numbers, user IDs, or email addresses that they’ve matched with other information already. For example, if you provided a business with your phone number (and permitted them to use it for advertising purposes) and purchased products from that company, they might deliver Facebook advertisements about the particular products you tend to like. As TechCrunch points out, another advantage is the ability of the advertiser to identify existing customers or fans who have not Liked the company’s Facebook page and use the new advertising feature to encourage those users to become fans on Facebook.

This feature allows advertisers a powerful new level of targeting at a time when the efficacy of Facebook’s advertisements is under scrutiny. The option opens the door to new, highly specific advertisements. We can’t grumble too much, however, as they’re only using information we’ve given them.

Welcome to Digital Blend, your one-stop-shop for coverage and recommendations of all things relating to mobile gaming, digital marketplaces, and indie titles (for the week ending September 2).

Welcome back to Digital Blend, our weekly look at the world of downloadable video gaming that exists at the fringes of the mainstream. That means we look at the hottest new mobile game releases, downloadable content drops on consoles and PCs, indie darlings that deserve your love and attention, and the best gaming values under $20.

Keep your comments and feedback coming. We want to hear from you! Did you try something you read about here and enjoy it? Is there a particular game you think we’ve overlooked or news you want to share? Any questions you are dying to ask? Let us know! Your thoughts, feedback, suggestions and (constructive!) criticism are welcome, either in the comments section below or directed at yours truly on Twitter, @geminibros.

Making headlines…

* You know how annoyed you get when you’re sitting on an airplane, either waiting to take off or preparing to land, and you have to turn off your MP3 player or your portable gaming device or your tablet or whatever piece of handheld tech you’re counting on to keep you occupied? Well the FAA is officially forming a committee that will put its heads together to determine if the “discontinue the use of electronic devices during takeoffs and landings” rule is stupid and outdated or if it actually helps keep you alive. If (or, more likely, when) it turns out to be the former, you’ll be able to thumb your nose at flight attendants as you keep reading your ebook while you listen to the latest Neil Young album. Good times.

* Square Enix is officially in the cloud. This week, the publisher launched its new CoreOnline game-streaming service, allowing fans to play previously released titles right in their browsers. Only Hitman: Blood Money and Mini Ninjas are available at launch, though Tomb Raider: Underworld, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, and more should be arriving in the coming months. The service is free, embracing an ad-supported business model that offers users a choice: microtransactions for individual levels and full games vs. the time investment of watching video ads. When you jump into a game, a menu pops up from which you can choose to watch various ads in exchange for minutes of game time. Watching a 1-minute ad could net you 20 minutes or more while a little 7-second ad would only give you 5 minutes. 

* Earlier this week, Sony released the latest firmware update for its PlayStation Vita handheld, paving the way for the long-asked-for PSOne Classics support on the device. Those games arrived shortly after in the PS Store. While Japan’s store got more than 200 titles and Europe’s got more than 100, the PSOne Classics section of the U.S.-based PlayStation Store received just nine. That number has risen now to more than 30 at the time of this writing; according to Sony, the delay is due to the need to obtain region-specific approvals from third-party publishers before certain titles can be released. That said, a game’s absence from the store doesn’t mean that it isn’t compatible; NeoGAF is maintaining a running list of titles that will work on the Vita, along with instructions on how to get them there. In related news, the new Vita firmware update also locked all memory cards to a single account. Not only does the decidedly consumer-unfriendly move force users to buy even more of the company’s overpriced memory cards, it also invalidates any saved data belonging to other accounts on newly account-locked cards.

* Bethesda Softworks announced the second DLC release for Skyrim earlier this week, called Hearthfire. The content pack will arrive on Xbox Live next Tuesday, September 4, 2012, with a price of 400 MS Points ($5). Unlike the previous Dawnguard DLC, Hearthfire is focused on customizing the user experience. With the content pack installed, you’ll be able to buy a plot of land and design/build a house of your own. You can then outfit your new pad with a variety of cool extras, like a steward to handle the buying of furniture, an alchemy lab, and a marital bed. Yes: you can move your wife in to live there. You won’t be able to have kids of your own — the life of the Dragonborn is apparently too filled with beast slayings for late-night naughty time — but you will be able to adopt. In short, it’s House Armor. Yay?

* Metal Gear is going mobile! Along with the news earlier this week that a Fox Engine-powered open-world game and a film adaptation are both coming was the revelation that GREE is working on Metal Gear Solid: Social Ops (via G4). The developer is currently looking at a late-2012/early-2013 release for the game, which sees players putting together a battalion out of cards they’ve collected (and presumably purchased through microtransactions). There’s also going to be some kind of base-building component in the game, much like there was in the awesome PSP title, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

Top buys for the week…

Mass Effect 3: Leviathan DLC :: PSN / XBLA :: $9.99 / 800 MS Points

BioWare’s latest DLC release for Mass Effect 3 amounts to that game’s first official campaign expansion, not including the free endgame-changing Extended Cut DLC that was released earlier this summer. This one is definitely for the fans who play these games for the story. It’s light on action but heavy on lore exposition, especially in the final minutes. Sure, you could probably find most of what’s revealed on forums and YouTube videos right now, but if the story really matters to you, then you’ll probably want to experience this one for yourself. It doesn’t change the ending, but it does reveal new truths about the game’s primary antagonist, the Reapers. Check out my review.

They Bleed Pixels :: PC :: $9.99

If combining H.P. Lovecraft, platforming gameplay, retro-styled graphics, and gallons of pixellated blood sounds appealing to you, then They Bleed Pixels is your number on buy for this week. The PC platformer delivers awesomely gory fun and ridiculously challenging gameplay, all for less than $10. Also, there are ponies.

Bastion :: iPad :: $4.99

Have you played Bastion yet in its console or PC incarnation? No? Do you own an iPad? Then go get this and thank me later. If you’ve already played Bastion… hey, you can play it on the go now, on your iPad. What’s that? You can’t hear me because you’re too busy playing Bastion for a second time on your iPad? Well done. You’ve made a superior life choice.

The Walking Dead: Episode Three – Long Road Ahead :: PSN / XBLA / PC :: $4.99 / 400 MS Points

Telltale Games has reached a career high with its adventure game adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic book series. Episode one was superb and episode two turned out to be even better. Right now, Nex is working his way through episode three for his review. You shouldn’t need the review to know what you need to do right now though. Go get episode three, then play it. Unless you haven’t played the previous two episodes; in that case, just go ahead and get yourself the full collection so you can have eps four and five the day that they’re released. Check out the trailer for episode three right here.

Gotham City Impostors: Free-to-Play :: Steam :: FREE

This one took us all by surprise. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment flipped the switch on its comedy-flavored competitive shooter, Gotham City Impostors, with the Steam version now officially a free-to-play title. You can spend $1-5 on packs containing various items– weapons, gadgets, support tools, and costumes. The core game is free, however. For those who are unfamiliar: Gotham City Impostors pits teams of wanna-be Batmen against teams of wanna-be Jokers in an epic FPS showdown that rages across the cartoony streets of Gotham City. It feels like it could be a DC Comics-infused mod for Team Fortress 2, and that’s hardly a bad thing.

Dropbox announces that the new Samsung Galaxy lineup will come with a complimentary two-year account loaded with 50GB of storage.

Dropbox has confirmed that the new Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy Camera will both be synced to a free cloud account, complete with 50GB of storage to start. The service will provide users with up to two years of cloud before they’re asked to fork over the monthly dues.

The Dropbox app will come pre-installed in both devices, but a special feature in the Galaxy Note 2 will automatically send every photo and video the user has in their Gallery to the connected Dropbox account. This could prove to be helpful to some, but possibly annoying to others who do not realize how much space they’re running up with every photo they take. The 50GB-added space directly available on the Galaxy Camera could be extremely resourceful, however, because that’s a ton more space than most camera owners have in their SD card anyway.

“The most important thing to us is to provide our users with the ability to have a seamless experience across the many mobile devices they use,” said Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, Head of Mobile Business Development at Dropbox. “These integrations with Samsung’s latest Wi-Fi and 4G enabled camera and Galaxy Note II means Dropbox users can rest assured their photos and videos will be with them anytime, anywhere.”

No confirmations, however, if this feature will be available to United States-based users. In June, Galaxy S3 owners were disappointed to learn that a free 48GB Dropbox was also available for the new Android, but AT&T and Verizon users were ineligible. Hopefully, the carriers can work out a deal with Dropbox by the time these new products launch so owners can take full advantage of the upcoming devices.

A malware bot uses instant messaging services like Facebook Chat, Skype, and Google Talk to spread through as many computers as it can.

We’re not trying to add to the general internet paranoia present in today’s online ecosystem (not to say it isn’t warranted). Having said that, knowledge is power and the more we know about the threats out there, the better we can protect ourselves. Since most of us are connected to the internet in some capacity at all times, contracting a virus isn’t exactly difficult. Especially with the popularity of social media, it’s a wonder there hasn’t been a piece of malware that took advantage of the large number of instant messaging services before now. 

This particular nasty bit of software sets itself apart from its predecessors with its impressive ability to spread using many different IM systems. Google Talk, Facebook Chat, Skype, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Pidgin, and ICQ (if anyone still uses it) are all vulnerable to the bot.

No doubt due to its enormous number of users, Facebook is the initial point of contact with a vulnerable PC. The malware usually carries a file name like “Picture.JPG_www.facebook.com”. The botnet sends users a seemingly interesting video link, sifting through their friend list with an AJJX command in order to make the link seem like it comes from a friend, family member, or coworker. According to McAfee, if that first user clicks on the link then the malware is able to gain a foothold in their computer. From there, a remote attacker can send commands to the malware and direct its actions. Using the list of IM clients above, the infected computer attempts to entice more contacts into clicking the video link so it may spread even further.

It has a few more tricks up its sleeve as well. It can bypass your Windows Firewall by using the command line or adding itself to the list of allowed programs. The malware then adds itself to the list of programs opened at start up. A copy of the malware is dropped into the Windows folder, hidden, and marked as read-only. Be sure to check your Public folder, Windows folder, or Program Files folder for “mdm.exe” if you’re worried you’ve been infected. And finally, to make sure it’s safe and sound, the malicious software checks for and disables any antivirus software, Yahoo Updates, and Windows updates. The Internet Explorer start page, along with Chrome and Firefox’s preference files are also modified to give the malware easy access to its needs.

Fortunately, if you know a bit about computers, the malware can be easily vanquished. You simply need to kill any instances of the virus in Task Manager and remove the start-up entry to avoid having it reload with the next computer restart. Alternately, McAfee’s Scan and Repair tool should do the trick. For now, just be extra careful when opening video links that seem a little suspicous even if they’re sent by your closest friend. If you’re extra paranoid, you could always call them up and confirm they really sent it.