With gaming becoming a core model in mobile phones (just look at the repackaged Nokia N-Gage platform), there is still an unadmitted obtrusion to the entire gaming experience turned miniature: phones aren’t really made to play games.

Zeeto’s Zeemote concept might change that as the Bluetooth enabled controller that resembles the Wii nunchuck finally received funding worth $6.9 million.

Post from: Cellphone9

Was sitting in at a panel discussion last night for an informal eCommerce thing in Manila, Philippines. My co-panelist JC Medina of Level-Up Philippines was talking about a new Level-Up Gamer SIM card. For those not in the loop, Level-Up is probably the brand name of gaming in Asia as they hold the franchise of RF Online, Ragnarok and here in the Philippines – over 80%-90% of the gaming industry.

So back home, where we have the most awesome and crazy cellular network offers, Level-Up launches the LU Gamer SIM card. What it does is offer value added services for LU gamers. Guild messaging, server announcements, “conduit” J2ME games whose results are synced with Ragnarok are jsut some of the neat features.

So really, the business model here is really simple. Since Level-Up is affiliated with telco SMART, it really is just another way to grab market share. Getting the young ones to shift from Globe and SUN Cellular to SMART …

Nice move!

Post from: Cellphone9

Perhaps one of the most surprising and enlightening announcements today from the Go Play event was the rebranding of the Nokia N-Gage from a hardware product to a service. The once hardware-centric brand is now a software and service that will be available throughout the Nokia phone platform. What this means is that anyone will be able to experience gaming across the board on all Nokia phones via download from the PC or over the air (OTA) direct download to almost any Nokia phone.

I remember when the first N-Gage was announced. Though it was not released in the Philippines, I wanted to get a piece of the action because I thought that mobile gaming was the coolest thing. As it turns out, many months later, I was able to test the next generation gaming phone called the N-Gage QD which was sadly swallowed by other dedicated gaming platforms in the form of the Sony Playstation Portable and the Nintendo DS.

I remember writing in a magazine column on why the old N-Gage business model was not sustainable – it had something to do with the Nokia guys not having computer gaming as one of their core competencies (as compared to Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo). With the games only openly available for the N-Gage and the N-Gage QD, this made access to casual games even more unaccessible as you would have to purchase the hardware AND the software to play games.

Nokia has now revamped the N-Gage into a gaming experience service that consists of (1) over the air downloads of all N-Gage titles via Ovi as well as (2) access to the wireless N-Gage gaming community also via the same portal. Game downloads will cost between 6 to 10 Euros. The games can be downloaded from the N-Gage website (you are actually downloading a software platform first for older models) which will be available come November 2007. The service will be fully available in South East Asia come first quarter of 2008.

Currently, these phones are compatible with the N-Gage service:

Nokia N73
Nokia N81
Nokia N81 8GB
Nokia N93
Nokia N93i
Nokia N95
Nokia N95 8GB

So what do you think? Will the newly repackaged N-Gage service fly? How much are you willing to pay for a game? Take a look at the picture above. That’s a Nokia N95 8GB utilizing the new Tv out feature to play games over a big television screen.

Post from: Cellphone9

I’m in Singapore! Although the Nokia Go Play event ended several hours ago (we took a post event trip to Equinox, a bar located at the highest peak of Singapore), there are a lot more things happening tomorrow. In the meantime let me give an overview of what took place today as Nokia launched several new products and services.

FOUR NEW PHONES
Although the news has been out in the blogosphere for quite some time, Nokia officially announces the coming of four new phones for the fourth quarter of 2007. This would include the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic, the Nokia N81 and the new Nokia N95 Black Edition.

The Nokia 5310 is the newest affordable music phone that brings forth the ultra slim line to Nokia’s stable of products. The Nokia 5610 is also a music phone that features an integrated hardware slider button for ease of use in browsing through playlists, the media player, the gallery and the main phone menu.

The N81 is the new top of the line music phone that features a new user interface (more on this in a succeeding post) and a walloping 8GB of memory.

The black edition N95 is a well thought of improvement to the previous model. It now houses 8GB of memory, has a bigger 2.8 inch screen, better battery life and TV out.

NEW SERVICES
Nokia has launched their new service called Ovi which is basically a portal by which consumers can experience the full circle of multimedia, Web 2.0 and gaming all in one portal. These specific services include the Nokia Music Store, Nokia Maps, and the N-Gage service. Ovi also aims to integrate with popular Web 2.0 applications such as social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, online video services like YouTube and other popular online community services like Digg.

NEW USER INTERFACE
Nokia has revamped their user interface for their new line of Nseries phones. Though the current line of phones still make use of the familiar S60 or S40 menus, Nokia has identified key areas by which consumers are most inclined to categorize their mobile life. The new UI is accessible via a dedicated button allowing you to browse through wireless connectivity and Internet features, music, video and pictures, gaming, and phone functions.

Post from: Cellphone9

Take a look at Sonic 2 for the Panasonic P902iS cellphone.

[Read all about it here]

Post from: Cellphone9

Emulation gods Vampent has released vNes, the portable emulation software for your mobile phone.

The app works for J2ME as well as the S60 platform. I’m prolly gonna install this on my N-Gage QD later today. Funny – coz I have more fun playing third party emulations rather than the N-Gage games themselves.

But more on that later.

You can download a free trial or buy it for $9.90.

[Jonic, from Re:Retro]

Post from: Cellphone9

I’ve been anticipating the release of eSoft Interactive’s Arcade Challenge for the Palm OS and Windows Mobile platform. From the guys who brought you Tower Mogul and Word Challege comes ARCADE CHALLENGE!

Yarr! 10 games in one great package! Buy it now for $9.95!

It’s so cheap! Think of it as a dollar for each game.

Post from: Cellphone9

So let’s all wait for its release set officially at November 13 2005.

[...] Getting Up instead imparts inertia to the player’s character. Trane accelerates when he runs, moving even faster down inclines, and retains this momentum in his leaps. It allows for fine control when moving short distances, or the quick negotiation of large areas after a second or so is taken to get up to speed.

1Up.com previews Getting Up

Post from: Cellphone9

There’s a lot to be said about mobile gaming – as in portable console gaming. But there’s not much on mobile gaming for your phone. The Nokia N-Gage is by far the only dedicated gaming device that also doubles as a cellular phone. It’s scary to see no other company trying to copy this business model. So its either the N-Gage sucks or Symbian J2ME gaming is in!

Even Gamespot has come up with an online survey making players vote on what form the Master Chief should take on his mobile adventure.

With the polls in, I wonder how the devs are going to develop a targeting system.

Microsoft Games Studio has tapped mobile maker IN-FUSIO to create a suite of applications (games, ringtones, etc.) based on the hit Xbox game, starring the Master Chief. Halo 2 cemented the franchise’s place as a phenom, with first-day sales totaling $125 million. A movie based on the game is due in 2007.

Courtesy of IGN Wireless

Post from: Cellphone9

The s-bracket is pretty unique compared to the other ones available in the market. Other cases get stumped when you want to swap UMD’s. You have to remove the PSP from its case and turn it over to release the disk holder. The s-bracket, however thinks beyond borders and allows the PSP to hinge onto the casing using two vertical strips of covering that attaches to the perimiter of the UMD insertion point (wow that sounded so military!).

Now, when you combine two s-brackets using a zipper, you get a Super Robot! Naw, actually you get a compact and easy to bring carrying solution for the PSP that also fits several UMD’s, memory sticks, device charger and a set of earphones. For added effect, attach a mountain climber’s lock to the straps. Now that looks cool.

Like most PSP cases, the s-Bracket (and its detached Twins counterpart) was designed so that the PSP is usable whilst still connected to the case. Indeed, all the PSP’s ports and doors are accessible while in the bracket, but playability is a totally different story. If you plan on leaving the PSP in the case while playing, you basically can’t have the carabiner connected — it is uncomfortable at best, and we found it to throw off the PSP’s ergonomics. Otherwise, we found the PSP perfectly playable, if perhaps a bit unwieldy, while attached to the case.

Full review at PSP World

Post from: Cellphone9