Will.i.am is about to launch the i.am+ iPhone add-on, a device that'll allow owners of Apple's smartphone to take 14-megapixel photos with their handset.
Songwriter, rapper, producer, DJ and self-proclaimed “chic geek” will.i.am is about to launch a piece of iPhone hardware that’ll boost the handset’s pixel count to 14 million.
Will.i.am told the Telegraph the device comes with its own sensor and a better flash, claiming it’ll turn Apple’s smartphone into a “genius phone”.
The i.am+ camera clips onto an iPhone 4, 4S and 5, and those using it will be encouraged to share their pictures on their own profile page at the neatly named www.i.am domain.
Little information is known about the device just now – we’ll be furnished with more details when it’s officially unveiled at a press conference in London on November 28. As part of its marketing push, it makes an appearance in the music video for will.i.am/Britney Spears recent collaborative effort Scream and Shout.
But is the i.am+ add-on just a pointless gimmick aimed at die-hard fans of the musician, or a serious attempt to take smartphone camera technology to a new level?
With the iPhone 5 already equipped with an 8-megapixel sensor, one wonders how many owners will be hankering for a contraption which will add bulk and weight to their phone even if it does boost its megapixel count.
And of course, more pixels doesn’t necessarily mean better quality pics – we’ll want to know more about the sensor and precisely what it’s capable of to see if the i.am+ really brings something new to the iPhoneography arena. And what about phone memory? These pics are going to be taking up nearly twice as much space as those taken with the iPhone 5′s built-in camera, so you might have to be more choosy about what you snap and how you manage your images.
Will.i.am has long been into all things tech, and in 2011 was signed up by chip giant Intel as director of creative innovation.
The i.am+ camera will be the first of a series of tech products to launch with will.i.am branding, the musician told the Telegraph.
Though they've been illegal in Japan since 2009, authorities have only now been able to block the import of the infamous R4 flash cart, a device that makes it obscenely easy to pirate Nintendo DS games.
For the vast majority of people, pirating console games is a seemingly impossible task. This is mostly by design, as while the actual process of pirating a modern video game isn’t all that technically complex, the various companies that publish games have been working for years to ensure that the ins and outs of gaming’s black market remain a mystery to the average person.
Of course, with a secret like this, it’s simply not possible for companies like Nintendo to ensure that people won’t figure out some new, inventive way to acquire their games free of charge. Thus, ever since the release of the Nintendo DS, those who promote piracy have been swearing by the R4 flash cartridge. We won’t get into deep technical specifics — sorry, but explaining how to steal games isn’t something we’re about to do — but in short, these are generally oversized memory cards, similar to those found in digital cameras, that can be connected to a computer via USB. Once attached, users are able to download ROM files to the R4 from the ‘net. These ROMs (which contain all the information one would find on a legitimate Nintendo DS game cartridge) can then be played in any Nintendo DS handheld, as the R4 can be slipped into and out of the handheld’s intrinsic, proprietary game slot.
Obviously this isn’t the kind of thing Nintendo wants to see spread any further than it already has, so back in 2009 the company sought the assistance of the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to make these devices illegal in the Land of the Rising Sun. The Ministry finally banned sales of the Chinese-made R4 in February of 2009, but unfortunately that wasn’t enough to stem the tide of R4 piracy in Nintendo’s native region. Thus, earlier today the Ministry also made it illegal to import R4 cartridges. Now, regardless of how you acquire an R4, if you find yourself in Japan you could face surprisingly intense legal repercussions.
To wit: In May of this year (read: well before today’s import ban was established), authorities arrested an electronics retailer in the Saitama prefecture. According to Kotaku, the 39-year-old man was charged with “selling [three] R4 cartridges over the internet between February 14th and March 9th for a total of ¥7,200 [about $91 USD].” Though it’s not specified what punishment the man faced following his arrest, he was taken into custody under the same law that backs the new import ban, so expect this move by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to increase the already rising number of piracy-related arrests in the island nation. Given that such arrests have been doubling year-on-year since 2009, we may be on the verge of an explosion of piracy crackdown.
As an aside, it’s interesting to note that while both Japan and the UK have now outlawed R4 cartridges, they remain relatively legal here in the United States. We say “relatively,” as owning the cart itself is perfectly legitimate, but loading any ROM images of which you don’t also own a retail copy will bring you under the scrutiny of authorities. Bottom line: The only way to completely ensure that you don’t end up in court, staring down a posse of Nintendo’s high-powered lawyers is to avoid R4 cartridges altogether. We can’t tell you what to do, but we’ve grown fond of you over the years and would rather not see a prison IP address attached to your future comments.
The conventional designs of cell phones have evolved a lot over the years. For a while, we all had the Zack Morris. Then, along came the Motorola flip phones and later the tiny Nokia candybars. That flip design managed to hold on for quite a while until the smartphone slab arrived, but that doesn’t mean it’s dead. It just means it needs to be reinvented.
What do you do when just one touchscreen won’t do? You get two, of course, as is the case with the newly announced Samsung SCH-W2013. This is a flip phone with a regular numeric keypad, but it also has a pair of 3.7-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen displays: one on the front cover and one inside. To make things even more interesting, it gets a 1.4GHz quad core processor (possibly Exynos 4412) to go along with its Android 4.0 ICS platform.
Running through the rest of the specs, we find 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, microSD expansion, 8MP camera, 1.9MP front camera, and an 1850mAh battery. Oh, and there’s dual SIM support there for CDMA2000 800/1900 and GSM 900/1800/1900. That’s because it’s being offered by China Telecom and it’s endorsed by none other than Jackie Chan.
It’s highly unlikely that this phone will ever see the light of day outside of China, but it’s still an interesting concept for people who can’t decide if they want a flip phone or a touchscreen phone. It’s going to be for China’s elite, though, as pricing is estimated to be in the US$3,000 range.
In what might be the most bizarre celebration of Thanksgiving to date, Ubisoft has revealed the details of a huge upcoming patch for its newly-released adventure epic Assassin's Creed III.
Thematically speaking, there are legitimate ways to link Ubisoft’s latest Assassin’s Creed game with the Thanksgiving holiday. After all, Assassin’s Creed III (mostly) stars a half-Native American living in the colonies immediately prior to, during and following the Revolutionary War. Given that American schoolchildren are taught that Thanksgiving started when Native Americans generously aided the starving pilgrim population by offering food and supplies during the harsh winters seen in what is now the Northeastern United States, it sorta makes sense to link Assassin’s Creed III to the holiday, no?
Regardless of whether or not that makes any sense to you, that’s exactly what Ubisoft is doing. As of this morning, Assassin’s Creed III has received a gratis 9MB update, dubbed the “Assassin’s Creed III Thanksgiving Patch.” Full details have been uploaded to the official Ubisoft forums, and it should be mandatory reading for anyone still working their way through Connor’s adventure. Not that this patch adds much in the way of novel content to extend the game’s shelf-life, but given the number of glitches and major bugs seen in the game once it launched, there are pretty solid odds that this patch may either fix an issue you’re currently experiencing, or may prevent you from experiencing issues in the future.
That said, we’d still like to highlight a few key fixes, either because we’ve experienced these problems ourselves, or because they amend rather serious issues. Have a look:
Multiplayer
Multiplayer Modes - ASSASSINATE – Instances where it was possible for players to kill players that were not their target in Assassinate have been corrected. - DEATHMATCH – In Fort Wolcott, fixed a bug where players would remained stuck on warmup screen. - MANHUNT – The cooldown boosts for loss streak bonus are not permanently active for all abilities during a manhunt round anymore.
Multiplayer Ladders - Players are now granted Abstergo points normally even if one or several players get the idle state at the end of the session (The idle players do not get any Abstergo points)
Multiplayer Misc - Changing the ability set three times during a game can no longer reset the ability’s cooldown. - It is no longer possible for players to get up and perform a kill under certain conditions while they’re vulnerable. - Transitions to join Multiplayer sessions after an invite now work correctly. - Warm up games are no longer interrupted when the host player leaves.
Singleplayer
Platform: All Location: Epilogue - Animus Synching tutorial, forced subtitles on off-camera voice, so that the player doesn’t think the game is frozen
Location: Frontier - Fixed a bug where players could respawn and desync immediately in a loop if he died in the Valley Forge region before unlocked. Also patches players which savegame are already stuck - Fixed a bug where the player could respawn under the ground in a loop, in two different places - Plugged a hole in the ground where players could fall through the map
Location: Global - A text message is now visible on-screen at all times while a skippable cinematic is playing - Added a failsafe to the animals navigation, to prevent them from getting stuck - Disabled special attacks with heavy weapons on animals - Fixed a bug where the player could not finish enemies on ground if they were thrown in deep snow
Location: Menus - Added a wait message for some cases where the game could appear frozen if some servers are unresponsive - Fixed a bug where the player’s friends’ Uplay wall would get spammed by previously completed missions and sequences when the player reloads his game
Platform: PS3 - Westpoint DLC – mission “A SPY AMONG US”, fixed a bug where required characters would disappear and not come back if the player went too far from them - Westpoint DLC – fixed a bug where the player could fall through the map by going through the gate while in conflict
Platform: Xbox 360 Location: Menus - Removed Benedict Arnold icon from the map legend
As you can see, even as a truncated list of its most important fixes this Thanksgiving Patch changes quite a bit about Assassin’s Creed III. While our review (and the majority of other reviews) were quite positive about Ubisoft’s latest Assassin’s Creed title, few would argue that the game lacked a certain amount of technical polish. An unfortunately large number of the problems listed in this Thanksgiving Patch would actually cause the game to completely lock up or would cause a set of circumstances within the game making it impossible to progress the plot or extricate your character from certain situations and areas. Thus, this patch should be seen as something of a mea culpa: Ubisoft is quite thankful that you’ve purchased their latest triple-A franchise title and would like to reward your loyalty by improving the quality of their game. It would have been preferable for Ubisoft to have fixed these problems prior to the release of Assassin’s Creed III, but that ship sailed a few weeks ago, so this patch seems a “better late than never” effort.
Luckily, free is a very good price for that sort of thing.
Video game studio THQ is being sued by the man responsible for a tattoo worn by one of the fighters in the game, who claims that the company doesn't have the rights to the tattoo... because he does.
Troubled video game studio THQ is facing a lawsuit that it probably didn’t see coming over its UFC Undisputed game series, with a tattoo artist suing over the fact that one of the fighters in the game has been reproduced so faithfully to real life that his tattoo is clearly visible – a tattoo that is, according to the artist responsible, the intellectual property of the artist and used without permission.
The tattoo artist in question is Arizona’s Chris Escobedo, who has filed suit against THQ over the “lion tattoo” sported by professional mixed martial artist Carlos Condit in both the video games UFC Undisputed and UFC Undisputed 3 and, well, real life. THQ may have thought that the likeness rights that it held for Condit in order to use him in the games would have covered such a possibility, but according to Escobedo and his attorney, Condit himself didn’t actually have the legal rights to his own tattoo in the first place, and so was unable to allow anyone else to use it.
“People often believe that they own the images that are tattooed on them by tattoo artists,” Escobedo’s attorney Maria Crimi Speth explained in a press release announcing the lawsuit against the video game studio issued last week. “In reality, the owner of the tattoo artwork is the creator of the work, unless there is a written assignment of the copyright in the tattoo art.” In this case, there was no such agreement between Escobedo and Condit, and as such, the tattoo – somewhat surreally – “belongs” to Escobedo.
For his part, Escobedo said that he “would not have agreed to the recreation of the tattoo by an animator” if he had been approached, although he went on to admit that he may have agreed had he been given approval over the artwork and financial re-numeration for the use of the tattoo. Underscoring that this may be more about money than artistic integrity, the lawsuit demands that THQ provide accounting for the games and the payment of profits, as opposed to any attempt to recall the games or delete the tattoo from future editions.
THQ has yet to publicly comment on the lawsuit.
This isn’t the first time that the intellectual property of a tattoo has led to legal action; in April 2011, the artist responsible for Mike Tyson’s distinctive facial tattoo famously filed suit against Warner Bros. in an attempt to delay or prevent the release of The Hangover, Part II because his tattoo design was replicated by Ed Helms’ character in the movie. That lawsuit was quickly settled, with the terms of the settlement private; it remains to be seen if a similar fate awaits Escobedo and THQ in this scenario.
Nintendo wants us all to believe that the Wii U can do anything that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 can. Thus, the newly-released console now boasts an application offering full access to YouTube.
Over the past few years, gaming consoles have increasingly developed new, non-gaming entertainment options. Movies streamed from Netflix, music courtesy Last.fm, and, of course, the ubiquitous crowd-sourced video content of YouTube have all become nearly as common uses for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii as those consoles’ respective games. Thus, with the dawn of a new console generation right around the corner, it should come as little surprise that Nintendo’s newly-launched Wii U console should play host to a dedicated YouTube application a mere five days after its retail debut.
Announced by YouTube on the firm’s official blog, the Wii U’s official YouTube application appears to be little more than a relatively standard aesthetics and functionality update for the original Wii YouTube app, only with special accoutrements added which take advantage of the console’s exclusive features. “[W]ith the Wii U GamePad you can quickly search for great videos to watch,” YouTube claims, before explaining that this merely means that using the GamePad’s on-screen keyboard to enter search terms is far easier than punching in numbers and letters via Nintendo’s “traditional” on-screen keyboard. Beyond that, the Wii U’s YouTube app looks roughly as clean and effective as its predecessors, and should feel familiar to anyone who has ever watched YouTube videos on a video game console in the past.
Despite this lack of innovative change, we’re pleased to see the Wii U receive a YouTube app. Especially since the Wii U app, like every other official YouTube application, features a very generous zero dollar price tag. Once downloaded, you need only enter your existing YouTube credentials (or register a new set of personal info) to access your account. Then you’re free to watch any of the millions of clips, TV episodes and music videos found on the Internet’s most popular video sharing service.
Now, news aside, we’ve got a question about all of this. At the moment, the Wii U YouTube application doesn’t include any extra functionality that might allow users to upload footage to YouTube via Nintendo’s latest gaming machine. This isn’t shocking, as no consoles are currently able to upload footage via their official YouTube applications, but given the number of recent, big-name releases that boast YouTube uploading capabilities as an important feature (see: Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2) it only stands to reason that YouTube and the various console manufacturers would want to expand the scope of their respective YouTube applications. Thus, we asked Nintendo if perhaps the company (or YouTube) had any plans to add this sort of additional feature set in either the near-term or long-term future.
Unfortunately, given that it’s the day after Thanksgiving and only a handful of people in the gaming biz even bothered to show up at work today, we’ve yet to hear a response (and likely won’t hear anything before Monday, at the earliest). We’ll let you know what/if Nintendo says when we hear back.
Looking to clarify 4A Games' statement that the Wii U's CPU is horrible and slow, THQ provides more context for why developer 4A Games decided not to bring Metro: Last Light to the console, but does not quell the Wii U's growing reputation as a weak console.
Metro: Last Light developer 4A Games made some unflattering comments about Nintendo’s new Wii U console after confirming that it wouldn’t bring its shooter to that machine. “Wii U has a horrible, slow CPU,” said 4A Games’ chief technology officer Oles Shishkovtsov.
THQ press relations representative Huw Benyon, who works directly with 4A Games on the Metro series moved to clarify those statements on Thursday to try and counter the negative reactions to Shishkovstov’s statements.
“[There] was one comment made by Oles the programmer, the guy who built the engine,” said Benyon to Eurogamer, “[Metro: Last Light] is a very CPU intensive game. I think it’s been verified by plenty of other sources… that the CPU on Wii U on the face of it isn’t as fast as some of the other consoles out there. Lots of developers are finding ways to get around that because of other interesting parts of the platform.”
“[Maybe] his opinion is that it’s not as easy for the way that the 4A engine’s been built as is the others. [We] could probably get around that. We could probably get Metro to run on an iPad if we wanted, or on pretty much anything… But I understand that there’s a real appetite in the media at the moment because the Wii U is a hot topic to spam some stories that are going to attract a lot of links if they present it in a certain way.”
Shishkovtsov’s statements, contrary to Benyon’s justifications, were sensational not because they were so vitriolic but because they were far more candid than most comments from individuals within the games industry. Video game professionals in publishing and development are typical reserved when speaking publicly so as not to offend partners. It’s unusual to see honest statements from those individuals when they’re dissatisfied.
The Wii U’s power has been in question since the console first debuted. After showing off a number of games, including Metro: Last Light, in a demo reel at E3 2011, Nintendo said that those demos weren’t representative of the Wii U’s actual power which would be comparable but not identical to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Back in October, ASUS announced that it would be bringing a second-generation Padfone to the market. If you’re unfamiliar with the device, it’s a smartphone that can be placed inside of a tablet dock. Therefore, the idea behind the device is to give users a smartphone and tablet in one.
These pictures are the first time that the Padfone 2 has shown up in white. Furthermore, the current news is that the Padfone 2 will become available sometime in December. However, there is still no word on a North America launch.
As for the inside of the device, ASUS has crammed a quad-core Snapdragon CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 13 MP camera, and a 4.7″ 720p display. When paired with the tablet dock, the Padfone turns into a 10.1″ display with 36 hours of talk time between the two batteries. With data plans rising in price and data limits decreasing, what could be better than sharing a data plan between your phone and tablet?
Are you holding out for this tag-team? Let us know in the comments below.
Square-Enix aims to speed up production on the Hitman series by splitting the franchise between two studios, much like Activision has done with the Call of Duty series. Who will IO Interactive share its signature series with?
Now more than ever, Square-Enix needs a video game franchise to that comes out on an annual basis and earns the publisher enough to continue funding bigger projects that take years to develop, particularly its core Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series. What series can fill that role? Deus Ex? Tomb Raider? Kingdom Hearts? With six years standing between IO Interactive’s Hitman: Blood Money and the newly released Hitman: Absolution, that assassin-starring stealth series doesn’t seem like a good fit for perennial work horse, but it appears that Square-Enix will put it to the task.
According to an interview Hitman: Absolution director Tore Blystad in Official PlayStation Magazine (via Eurogamer), IO Interactive now shares development duties on the series with another studio in the Square-Enix empire. The goal is to put out a new Hitman game each year, with the two studios alternating, much like Activision’s structure for the Call of Duty series.
“It’s like with Treyarch and Infinity Ward,” explained Blystad, “You have an IP that has been developed. They will feed off each other, as well as [have] some things that stand out. I think with these big franchises it takes time to develop just one game. If you can work a little bit in parallel at least and help each other out.”
Blystad also commented on how it feels to let another team work on his signature creation. “There are talks between us and of course it has to be somewhat in sync, but it’s the first time you could say Hitman has gone out of the house. Luckily it’s with someone we know. Some of the key developers came from IO and have been working on previous games so it’s not like it’s in completely new hands.”
IO Interactive’s new franchise partner was actually opened specifically to work on other studios’ series. Square-Enix Montreal, the team behind Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the upcoming Thief 4, will share Hitman development duties with IO Interactive. Stealth play and games with a variety of choices are Square Enix Montreal’s specialties so Hitman makes a good fit for the team.
“Square-Enix Montreal will work in step with IO Interactive so we can both contribute great games to the Hitman franchise in the future,” said the Montreal studio’s boss Lee Singleton, “We will increase the frequency of game releases, but we have no plans to migrate the franchise to Montreal in its entirety.”
A statement from Nokia UK hinted that Dinning, who held the position of lead programme manager for Imaging Experience, had decided to quit the company rather than move to Finland.
Great reluctance
The company said: "Following the relocation of key strategic roles to Finland, and with great reluctance, Damian Dinning has made a personal decision to leave the company effective 30 November 2012.
"We thank him for his service to the company and certainly wish him the best."
Dinning's decision to leave Nokia will be a blow for a company that, over the years, has built a reputation for its high quality camera technology.
A statement from Nokia UK hinted that Dinning, who held the position of lead programme manager for Imaging Experience, had decided to quit the company rather than move to Finland.
Great reluctance
The company said: "Following the relocation of key strategic roles to Finland, and with great reluctance, Damian Dinning has made a personal decision to leave the company effective 30 November 2012.
"We thank him for his service to the company and certainly wish him the best."
Dinning's decision to leave Nokia will be a blow for a company that, over the years, has built a reputation for its high quality camera technology.
Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson has released its new Mobility Report for the third quarter of 2012, and has discovered some staggering new numbers.
First and foremost, mobile data usage has doubled from where it was a year ago, and is expected to have a compound annual growth of at least 50 percent every year through 2018.
The massive jump in data was attributed streaming video, which Ericsson believes will lead to data usage expanding to 12 times that number over the next six years.
With 25 percent of all smartphone data and 40 percent of all tablet data spent on streaming video, it's not hard to imagine that much continued growth.
Smartphone, LTE subscription numbers growing
Additionally, Ericsson reported smartphones accounted for 40 percent of all mobile phone sales during Q3 2012.
As a result of more and more smartphone sales, Ericsson stated smartphone data usage will surpass the average usage from all other devices combined.
The Mobility Report also stated total mobile phone subscriptions are on pace to reach 6.6 billion by the end of 2012, and a target of 9.3 billion by 2018.
The data and smartphone adoption rates were bolstered by strong LTE subscriptions during Q3 2012, with some 13 million users switching over to the high-powered network.
LTE subscriptions are estimated to reach 55 million consumers by the end of this year, and total 1.6 billion by 2018.
That said, Ericsson pointed out WCDMA/HSPA networks still cover more than half of all subscriptions, with 65 million more added during the last quarter.
With the mobile market growing 9 percent year-over-year, and LTE networks expected to be available to nearly half the global population over the next five years, those numbers don't seem quite so unattainable.
Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 fans of the Resident Evil series may get a chance to wash the bad taste of Resident Evil 6 out of their mouths in the near future. The Korean Ratings Board says Resident Evil: Revelations may release on more platfroms than Nintendo 3DS.
2012 wasn’t a completely horrible year for Resident Evil. The Milla Jovovich movie sequel Resident Evil: Retribution was an affront to taste, the computer animated feature Resident Evil: Damnation was sleep-inducing, and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sequel Resident Evil 6was probably the loudest, dumbest, most-expensive spectacle in developer Capom’s stories history. Resident Evil: Revelations, however, turned out to be one of the best games yet for the Nintendo 3DS handheld. It was scary, fun, and challenging, all while still indulging in the chaotic bombast of those failed movies and games in the same franchise. Now it looks like console owners will get a chance to enjoy the game on the big screen.
A poster in the NeoGAF web forum spotted a listing for a new version of Resident Evil: Revelations for Xbox 360and PlayStation 3 on the Korean Ratings Board website.
While Capcom has yet to confirm that it’s porting its handheld game to home consoles, there is precedent for the Korean Ratings Board leaking information about upcoming releases, including Capcom’s own Devil May Cry HD Collection.
Capcom has never been shy about releasing its games on as many platforms as possible. Resident Evil 4, for example, was originally planned as a Gamecube exclusive, but it was later ported to the PlayStation 2, feature phones, Apple’s iOS handhelds, the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360. It is unusual, though, for the company to port its portable titles to home consoles. There are rare examples. The Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series made the jump from Game Boy Advance to Nintendo DS and then later to Nintendo Wii, but as a largely text-based game it was able to make the transition to a home console with few necessary changes.
Resident Evil: Revelations is ready made for console controllers. It’s one of the very few games for Nintendo 3DS that actually supports the Circle Pad Pro peripheral, giving it dual-analog stick controls much like those in Resident Evil 6. In fact, that is the ideal way to play the game. There are only limited touch screen-based portions of the game as well, meaning that Capcom wouldn’t have to drop content to port the game over.
Looking for an exceptional deal this holiday season? You aren’t alone. When it comes to holiday shopping, things get expensive in a hurry. Good news is that there are also quite a few bargains around this time of the year, and Walmart’s smartphone special is one of these deals.
So what’s going on over at Walmart? Basically any qualifying Android or Windows Phone 8 device comes with an $100 Walmart gift card per phone order, this applies to online and in-store purchases. Even better, Walmart has pretty decent selection on phones, and the pricing isn’t half bad either.
Here is Walmart’s pricing on just a few of the hottest phones around right now, all of which qualify for the gift card promotion:
Nokia Lumia 920 – $69.99
HTC Phone 8x – $249.99
Samsung Galaxy S3 – $149.99
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 – $399.99
Motorola Droid RAZR M – $79.99
As you probably already knew, all of these phones require two year contracts, though a variety of different carriers are represented for some of these phones. It’s also worth noting that there are MANY more Android and Windows Phone smartphones covered in this promotion than the few I mentioned above.
What do you think, do you plan to take advantage of the Walmart $100 Gift Card promotion this holiday season?
Definitely the ugly side of shopping during Black Friday, threats of violence and fights over low priced electronics have been reported yet again.
With plenty of YouTube videos being posted recording the retail chaos of snagging doorbusters, shoppers around the United States have continued the tradition of fighting on Black Friday at various retail locations including Walmart, Kmart and Sears. At a retail location of Walmart in Alabama, customers were filmed ripping apart a display of Xbox 360 games before police were called to break up the kerfuffle. At another unnamed Walmart location, crowds were filmed ripping apart a display of smartphones as Walmart employees in yellow security vests were pushed away.
According to the L.A. Times, a man at a Kmart location in South Sacramento threatened to stab customers in line waiting for the store to open. Police stated that the crowd became incensed when employees of the Kmart location came out to the line to hand out vouchers for doorbuster items and were screaming obscenities at the workers. At one point, one man started threatening to stab people with vouchers. However, police were contacted and customers were allowed into the store without further incident.
A similar situation at a Kmart in Indianapolis incited threats of violence when shoppers at the front of the line attempted to sell their vouchers for a 42-inch plasma HDTV that was being sold for less than $200. Only a few of these vouchers were being handed out at the stores due to limited stock. According to local affiliate WISH TV, the remaining people in the line were getting upset at the customers that were attempting to sell their vouchers for a profit. According to the police that arrived on the scene, customers yelling threats were escorted off the premises.
At a Sears location within a shopping mall in San Antonio, Texas, one man attempted to rush the door and cut in line in front of customers that had been waiting all night to grab the Black Friday doorbusters. The unnamed man punched another customer in the face during the argument and that customer pulled a handgun on the argumentative line-cutter. The impatient man fled the scene and police were called. However, the man with the handgun was not charged since he had a concealed carry permit.
Customers attempting to get their hands on doorbusters weren’t the only problem for retail stores opening for Black Friday this year. Police were called to several locations to arrest shoplifters taking advantage of the chaos within stores. According to local Dallas affiliate WFAA, police were called to the Town East Mall to break up fights in addition to catching a suspected shoplifter. A nearby shopper caught the incident on video which shows the suspected shoplifter being shot with a taser after he failed to listen to police.
Pepper spray also made another appearance this year after a mother of two used it last year at a Walmart location to get her hands on a discounted Xbox 360 during Black Friday. According to Fox Business, a customer was pepper-sprayed in the face at a JC Penney’s location. In addition, a woman attempting to shoplift at a shopping mall in Omaha and used pepper spray on a store employee as well as two security guards.
The console video game business is different than it was when British studio Eurocom opened for business in 1988. Back then, a bomb like 007 Legends wouldn't kill a studio. In 2012, that game's failure has forced Eurocom to liquidate nearly its entire staf.
Skyfall may be the best James Bond movie ever made, but this fall’s 007 Legends from Activision and British developer Eurocom didn’t earn the same high praise in the pantheon of Bond video games. The anthology shooter recreating some of the most famous Bond movies received a drubbing by critics with a 45 percent average score on Metacritic. The game failed to break into the sales charts in October. In the vicious business of modern console game making, where Metacrtici scores can make or break a studio, it’s no surprise that Eurocom has suffered severe layoffs in the aftermath of 007 Legends’ disappointing release.
GamesIndustry International first reported on Friday that unnamed sources within the studio claimed it would be hit by “wide-ranging redundancies.” Eurocom studio director Hugh Binns later confirmed that many Eurocom staffers would be losing their jobs.
“Eurocom are undertaking a restructuring which I regret to say has meant we’ve made the majority of our workforce redundant today,” said Binns in a statement, “This includes many very experienced, talented, and highly skilled employees, and we’d like to thank them all for your hard work and efforts.”
“We’ve fought to try and save as many jobs as possible but the steep decline in demand for console games, culminating in a number of console projects falling through in the last week, left us with no option. Eurocom has retained a core staff of just under 50 employees and will be focusing mainly on mobile opportunities moving forward.”
Since opening for business in 1988, Eurocom has never been known for its wild creativity, just a prolific history creating licensed games and ports going all the way back to the Nintendo Entertainment System. Its last moderate hit was the 2009 shooter Dead Space: Extraction, a Nintendo Wii spinoff from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 horror series. It followed Extraction with the widely Wii remake/reimagining of the most famous James Bond game, GoldenEye 007. That game received positive reviews and decent sales, but that success didn’t help 007 Legends continue to establish the Bond series as a major gaming franchise.
Check out our list of the latest mobile phones around
In the ever-changing mobile market, it can be hard to keep pace with the latest mobile phones. That's why we've put together this hub for our latest mobile phone reviews and hands on: to give you the ideal jumping-on point for choosing the best handset for you out of the most current models around.
We cover a plethora of brands, including Apple, HTC, Nokia, Samsung and Blackberry, and operating systems, such as Android, iOS and Windows Phone 8, so you should find something that piques your interest here.
In short, if you're seeking a new mobile phone, this is a great place to start.
Hands on
These phones are so new we've not even received a unit to put through our full review process yet.
Luckily TechRadar travels the world to get hands on with all the latest handsets as soon as they're announced, so we can give you our initial reaction right here, right now.
Huawei Ascend G330
After the success of the wallet-friendly Ascend G300 the Chinese manufacturer has decided to reboot the handset with the Huawei Ascend G330.
Expected to sport the same £100 price tag, the Ascend G330 features a 4-inch display, beefed up 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB RAM, 5MP rear camera and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
The handset itself is pretty uninspiring, but you're not going to get iPhone-esque styling on a device which is one fifth of the price so we can forgive Huawei here, but at 130g it's got a weight to it.
Unlike Samsung and HTC, Huawei doesn't go overboard with its Android overlay, with just a light sprinkling occurring on the ICS interface on the G330 – although icons have been changed, and look a little childish.
With its impressive spec sheet for the cash you'll pay out, the Ascend G330 could well be the new star of the budget smartphone market. Keep an eye out for our full review, when we'll reveal if it's really worth it.
The HTC 8S in second in line to the Windows Phone 8 crown at the Taiwanese firm, with the flagship 8X still the show at the top of the tree.
However that's not to say the 8S should be ignored, it's still a perfectly capable and well designed handset which won't cost you a huge amount of money.
The 8S will go head to head with the mid-range Lumia 820, with its fancy array of colour options, 4-inch HD display, 1GHz dual-core processor and the welcome addition of a microSD card slot – something which is missing from both Nokias and the 8X.
An advantage HTC has over its rivals is its partnership with Dr Dre and his Beats Audio technology – enhancing your music with added bass to really get the party started.
Design wise we reckon the Taiwanese firm is on to a winner with the HTC Windows Phone 8S, but we'll reserve proper judgement until we've fully reviewed it.
Not wanting to miss out on the Windows Phone 8 party, mobile giant Samsung has its own handset on the way, in the form of the Ativ S.
Taking design cues from the extremely popular Samsung Galaxy S3, the Ativ S offers up a solid Windows Phone experience and is ready to challenge the likes of the Nokia Lumia 920 and HTC 8X.
The Ativ S is an intriguing proposition packing a huge 4.8-inch display, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, huge 2,300mAh battery and an 8MP rear camera.
Although slower to market than its rivals the Samsung Ativ S could well be the best of the initial flurry of Windows Phone 8 devices.
The unlucky majority who were unable to snap the brilliant Nexus 4 from Google after its release last week will soon be able to pick up the handset from Three…as long as they're willing to cough up 400 smackers for it.
From December 13 - which marks the end of O2's Nexus 4 exclusive offer - the service provider will be selling the handset for £399.99 on Pay As You Go, or for £35 per month on Three's The One plan with an upfront cost of £29.
Three is yet to reveal whether this price is for the 8GB or 16GB variety of the Nexus 4, but it's notably more than the wallet-friendly £279 Google is selling the 16GB model for SIM-free. It's also not yet known how long the £35 per month contract term is for, but it's probably two years.
Supply & demand
Google is currently selling the Nexus 4 at around cost price, but network carriers have taken advantage of the handset's massive popularity (it's currently sold out on Google and several other outlets) by charging more for the device.
The higher prices also accommodate the contracts being sold with the phones, but they must just be hoping that PAYG customers don't just look at the Google Play Store.
Three's All in One 15 costs £15 and gives 30-day access to All-You-Can-Eat data along with 300 any-network minutes and 3,000 texts. Alternatively, All in One 25 costs £25 and offers All-You-Can-Eat data, 500 minutes and 3,000 texts and for a 30-day period.
The unlucky majority who were unable to snap the brilliant Nexus 4 from Google after its release last week will soon be able to pick up the handset from Three…as long as they're willing to cough up 400 smackers for it.
From December 13 - which marks the end of O2's Nexus 4 exclusive offer - the service provider will be selling the handset for £399.99 on Pay As You Go, or for £35 per month on Three's The One plan with an upfront cost of £29.
Three is yet to reveal whether this price is for the 8GB or 16GB variety of the Nexus 4, but either way it's notably more than the wallet-friendly £279 Google is selling the 16GB model for SIM-free. It's also not yet known how long the £35 per month contract term is for, but it's probably two years.
Supply & demand
Google is currently selling the Nexus 4 at a loss, but network carriers have taken advantage of the handset's massive popularity (it's currently sold out on Google and several other outlets) by charging more for the device.
The higher prices are also to accommodate the contracts being sold with the phones.
Three's All in One 15 costs £15 and gives 30-day access to All-You-Can-Eat data along with 300 any-network minutes and 3,000 texts. Alternatively, All in One 25 costs £25 and offers All-You-Can-Eat data, 500 minutes and 3,000 texts and for a 30-day period.
A communication between LG and an Optimus 7 Windows Phone 7 device owner has cast doubt over whether the aging phone will see the Windows Phone 7.8 update. If it's correct, will the Optimus 7 be the only one to suffer?
While Windows Phone 7 device owners wait patiently for news of the Windows Phone 7.8 software update, there could be trouble brewing, as according to an LG representative, its Optimus 7 phone may not be getting the update at all.
The news comes from a Polish WP7 blog, which published an email from LG to a customer inquiring about the release of WP7.8, saying it’s “not expected to introduce the software update for your version of the E900.” At least, that’s what Google Translate gives us.
We know the E900 better as the LG Optimus 7, one of the original Windows Phone 7 line-up released in late-2010. It was joined by the LG Quantum/LG Optimus 7Q, a close relation with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard which was only released in selected markets, the U.S. being one of them.
Like the majority of first generation Windows Phones, the Optimus 7 has a single-core 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM, and it has subsequently been updated to Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.
What we’re saying here is that at first glance, there’s no obvious reason why it shouldn’t run Windows Phone 7.8. The concern then becomes, what if it’s not the only one?
Microsoft hasn’t been very forthcoming with details on the new software, saying only that new information would be coming in the next weeks. Nokia has been more careless, with a few pieces of information leaking from its camp recently, plus the OS has been seen running on a Lumia 900.
So, we know WP7.8 will make it to the Lumia 900, but are there any notable differences between it and the Optimus 7? It shipped with version 7.5, also known as Mango, already installed, while the Optimus 7 didn’t, plus the processor is a Qualcomm APQ8055 1.4GHz chip, and the Optimus 7 uses a 1GHz Qualcomm QSD8650.
The Lumia’s chip is part of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S2 range, while the Optimus 7’s is a Snapdragon S1, and was first produced almost two-years before the S2 version. It’s also essentially the same chip found in the other first generation Windows Phones, including the HTC Trophy, HD7 and HTC 7 Pro, the Samsung Omnia 7 and the Focus, plus the aforementioned LG Quantum.
If the processor is the problem, there’s going to be more than a few disappointed owners out there when WP7.8 does arrive.
No cause for alarm just yet
There’s a good chance this may not be the case, as the Optimus 7 has always been a bit of a problem child. When Mango was released, the phone was one of the few that experienced consistent update fails, leading to Microsoft recommending that users don’t even try. This was also the case with Samsung’s Omnia 7.
A hardware problem which raised its head earlier this year resulted in LG replacing bricked, discontinued Optimus 7 devices with Android phones, plus users have reported issues with the headphone socket and the charging system too. Perhaps the Optimus 7 is just too far past its usefulness — in LG and Microsoft’s eyes at least — to be worthy of updating.
Finally, the LG representative could have got the facts wrong, and Optimus 7 owners will be able to enjoy Windows Phone 7.8 after all. However, we won’t know for sure until Microsoft gets round to providing a release date for the missing-in-action update.
This special Thanksgiving edition of Digital Blend gives thanks for the best in under-$20 gaming for 2012.
Happy Thanksgiving, Digital Blenders! This has been a tremendous year for games of all shapes and sizes, and an especially good one for the sort of digital-only full titles and DLC offerings that I cover here. Instead of running through the usual line-up of big news and releases for the week, I’m using today instead to look back over 2012 and zero in on the best of the best, the favorites that you might want to give a second look — or a first look! — as you cower in a corner and wait for the Black Friday hellstorm to pass.
Mark of the Ninja :: Xbox 360 / Windows :: 1,200 MS Points / $14.99
There were a lot of stealth games released in 2012 and many of them either flirted with excellence or flat-out embraced it. Klei Entertainment’s Mark of the Ninjafalls into the latter category, and it may well be the best genre release of the year. The 2D side-scroller features the same cartoon-inspired art style and over-the-top violence that marks Klei’s efforts on the two Shank games, only you’re employing stealth tactics and striking always from the shadows. With a perfectly laid out learning curve, a healthy mixture of abilities and tools to unlock, and a loose, free-thinking AI opposing you, Mark of the Ninja delivers one of the most exciting and dynamic stealth gaming experiences in this or any other year.
Borderlands 2 DLC :: PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360 / PC :: $9.99 / 800 MS Points
Gearbox Software has released two or four promised DLC add-on packs for the September “looter shooter,” Borderlands 2. You can read our positive reviews of both Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty and Mister Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage at your leisure, but the takeaway is: YAY. Gearbox delivered healthy amounts of add-on content for the original Borderlands, but the DLC output for Borderlands 2 steps things up considerably. Both packs add new environments — complete with multiple fast-travel locations! — an assortment of new enemies to face and loot to collect, and a more developed approach to the endgame. Scarlett ranks as the better of the two by a wide margin, but both are solid efforts. You can also still nab yourself a Season Pass to pre-buy the full selection of four content packs with a $10 overall savings.
Journey :: PlayStation 3 :: $14.99
Some will argue that Journey isn’t worth the price of admission, with $14.99 being too step for what amounts to a two-hour game. Those people are idiots. It’s foolish to discount anything from Jenova Chen and Thatgamecompany, especially a stellar effort like Journey. The beautiful, minimalist design and unconventional approach to online play are noteworthy bullet points, but the real appeal of Journey is more intangible. Just check out Ryan’s own Journey review, which nabbed a near-perfect 9.5 / 10 score. If price really is an issue for you, there’s also the Journey Collector’s Editionpackage, a disc-based compilation that sweetens the deal with Thatgamecompany’s flOw and Flower for a total price of $29.99.
Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack!! :: PlayStation Vita / PC :: $7.99 / $2.79
Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack!!will cost you slightly more on the PlayStation Vita, but it also continues to be one of the best reasons to own Sony’s portable gaming system. The 2D platformers sees you guiding a tiny mutant blob from outer space through a series of environments, growing large as you absorb everyday items into your blobby form. It’s sort of a cross between Katamari Damacy and Super Mario Bros, only way more twisted and featuring one of the greatest final levels in video game history. Oh yeah: we’re getting hyperbolic up in here. Justifiably. Tales From Space is the real deal.
Papo & Yo :: PlayStation 3 :: $14.99
Few games impressed me more this year than Papo & Yo from newcomer from newcomer studio Minority. Conceived by Vander Caballero, a veteran of AAA game development, this puzzle-platformer tells the very personal story of its creator’s rough childhood as seen through the lens of magical realism. Caballero and his siblings grew up with an alcoholic father, realized in the game as a friendly, oversized monster that can turn nasty without warning whenever he munches on any frog that wanders across his path. It’s a relatively simple and straightforward game, but it’s also a stunningly beautiful one that will leave you lost in thought by the time its credits roll. I can’t recommend this one highly enough. Go get it.
The Walking Dead :: PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360 / PC / iOS :: price varies
What can really be said that hasn’t already about Telltale Games work on The Walking Dead? Having played through all five episodes as well as all of this year’s big releases (Far Cry 3 included; stay tuned for that review soon), I can safely say that this one is the absolute no-brainer for Game of the Year. It’s a perfect effort, top-to-bottom, an adventure game that completely reinvents genre conventions while pulling off the impossible: delivering a story that demands your wholehearted investment. It’s a difficult journey to take, especially by the time you reach the grim events of episode five, but the rewards earned for sticking it out can’t be quantified. This is video gaming at its very finest, and it’s an experience that can be enjoyed regardless of where you think you fall in the hardcore / casual gamer divide.
Our constantly updated list of the best HTC phones.
So you've decided that HTC is the brand you want to spend the next 24 months of your life with - but that's not the end of the quest.
You have a plethora of devices, price points and operating systems to choose from and it can all get a little bewildering. But which is the best HTC phone for you?
Like Huawei and ZTE, HTC started life by building network-branded handsets, and has branched out and made their own name. The HTC Desire was the phone that truly launched it, and the Android OS, into the mainstream.
With the launch of the Android 'One' line, and Windows Phone based '8' line, alongside the continuation of the Desire range, how does HTC's new slim lined range stack up?
Thankfully TechRadar is on hand to help you out - check out our run down of all the HTC phones around at the moment:
1. HTC One X+
OS: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Not being a complete overhaul of the impressive One X, the HTC One X+ is comparable to the Sensation XE over the original Sensation.
Launching in matte black, with red accents, the HTC One X+ launches with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and HTC Sense 4+ on top of a 1.7GHz quad core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, powered by a massive 2100mAh battery.
It's ticked the boxes that we were looking for in an improvement to the One X, and should be a real consideration for anyone looking for their next smartphone.
Looking at the HTC One X, it is clear that phone was designed to be at the fore of the mobile market. The quad core processor, Android 4.1 and Sense 4+, and HD screen make the HTC One X a powerful media phone.
This is backed up with 32GB of internal storage, highly necessary given the lack of microSD support. It's still one of the best HTC phones around, and now is a little more palatable on the price front thanks to the appearance of the HTC One X+.
Baby brother to the HTC One X, the One S, might not have the same highly-powered insides, but that doesn't mean it's not special in its own right.
Its slightly smaller than the One X, and only has a dual core processor, but the Super AMOLED display reproduces colours faithfully. For those looking for a high end handset, but not looking for high end prices, the One S is a real alternative, and if you can't stand the thought of a larger screen then this is the number one handset from HTC, especially given the micro-arc oxidised back it's rocking.
The recent Windows Phone 8 launch means that new devices such as the brightly coloured HTC 8X are the hot topic of conversation.
The HD display with 342ppi easily matches the iPhone for clarity, and the dual core 1.5GHz processor powers WP8 along with aplomb. Like the One X, it doesn't come with microSD support, which is a little frustrating given that this is now supported by WP8.
However, it's a strong handset with a number of top features, including Beats Audio and a dedicated internal amplifier... plus we're digging the alternative design.
Coincidentally launching 2 years after the original Desire, the HTC Desire X may well be designed to catch users coming to the end of their 24 month contract.
With a design reminiscent of the HTC One series, the Desire X comes with a dual core 1GHz processor, Android 4.0.4 and an impressive 4 inch Super LCD screen.
It's main strength is that it comes in at a slightly cheaper price bracket, and should be rolled up to Jelly Bean at some point soon.
The lowest specced model of the HTC range is the HTC Desire C. This might seem a little odd, given that the Desire range was once the jewel in the HTC crown.
The big selling point of the HTC Desire C is the low price, so you might forgive the 600MHz processor, or the HVGA 3.5-inch screen. Looking at it though, you'd fool just about everyone as the HTC Desire C looks like a high end device.
It's not got the grunt or the clout of the new One Series, but the big advantage the Desire C has over the competition is the addition of HTC Sense, an overlay which supercharges the device compared to the boring stock Android.
You have to feel a little bit sorry for the HTC One V - it was an unloved cookie from the start. Despite having a similar design to the popular HTC Hero and Legend, few outlets ever picked it up, despite the lower-ish price tag.
Actually, it was the cost that condemned it - a single core processor, no chance of Jelly Bean and an underpowered camera meant that the fact it was up there with the One S in terms of price meant there was very little reason to choose it.
But it's still around and a darn sight cheaper, so if you like iconic, premium design and aren't too fussed about specs then it's a good alternative choice.
We shouldn't have this phone on the list as it's just too old now - well, over a year, which is aeons in this business.
However, it's cheaper than gone-off chips now, so if you're after a budget choice then this can still do a job. It's got pre-Beats SRS surround sound enhancement, a microSD slot and a 600MHz processor, as well as a 3.2MP camera.
Burn through the Web with these handy add-ons for Mozilla's Firefox browser.
Firefox is one of the most popular browsers on the market, and although it wasn’t the first Web browser to support extensions, it definitely has the largest library of them. Third party developers have been making custom Firefox add-ons for years now, and with a library that numbers in the millions, it can be hard to track down the best ones. For that reason, we’ve put together this list of our favorites that are sure to give your browser a boost.
The end-all be-all of browser extensions. This one lets you run countless custom user-created scripts and tweak the Internet in tons of different ways.
We hate to break it to you, but your browsing isn’t private. On almost every website you visit, bugs and trackers collect data on the pages you go to and the links you click. Ghostery blocks over 1,000 of these bugs and provides you quick access to more information about the ones it’s blocking
AutoPager eliminates the need for you to click “next page” ever again. The extension auto-loads subsequent pages on any multi-page site and allows you to scroll continuously through the contents.
With a namesake from the man whom Jesus brought back to life four days after he was dead, the Lazarus extension more or less does what its biblical lore describes: it recovers everything you enter into form fields. So, if the page crashes or times out, you don’t lose everything.
Highlight any text in a foreign language, right-click on it, and you’ll instantly be given a Google-powered translation into the language of your choice.
Lastpass saves all your passwords in a locally encrypted vault, so not even LastPass has access to them. In addition to saving and auto-filling passwords, it can also be used to generate highly secure passwords when you create new accounts.
This extension is a project from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and pretty much does what it sounds like it does. It encrypts your communications with major websites, turning the site from “http” to “https,” ensuring that your browsing is secure.
TrackMeNot is a lot like Ghostery in that it seeks to keep your browsing habits private. However, it takes an entirely different approach. Rather than blocking bugs and trackers, TrackMeNot obfuscates your browsing by sending out randomized queries every so often.
Web of Trust is a user-ratings-based add-on that informs you about the level of security behind a link before you click on it. It has a user base of over 1.6 million users (and more on Chrome), so the trustworthiness ratings are generally pretty reliable.
FEBE, which stands for Firefox Environment Backup Extension, backs up all of your add-ons by building installable .xsi files and saving them locally on your computer.
This is a shopping helper extension that works by indexing thousands of shopping sites and alerting you if there’s a lower price for any item you’re looking at.
Nobody likes getting all squinty-eyed trying to see what thumbnail pictures are. With this extension, thumbnails will be enlarged when you hover over them with your mouse
This one is somewhat similar to Thumbnail Zoom and Image Zoom, but it works for image links. Hover over the hyperlink of any image and this add-on will give you a preview of the picture.
Similar to Thumbnail Zoom, this add-on enlarges images on the Web to their full size when you hover over them with your mouse. It doesn’t work with every image you’ll come across, but it works with most of them.
This handy little add-on will tell you why the page you’re on is running so slowly. It uses Yahoo’s rules for high-performance Web pages and suggests ways to improve the performance of the page you’re viewing.
A must-have for students, this extension manages all of your sources while you’re doing research and provides simple tools to help you create citations.
WindowShopper makes shopping online a more visual experience. Instead of searching with text, it allows you to use image searches to find products similar to the one you’re viewing.
Most of the time when you’re copying text, you want the text, but don’t need the formatting that comes along with it. Copy Plain Text allows you to copy stuff to your clipboard sans formatting.
