New Technology Reviews!.: Marketplace

OnLive announces free games for this Halloween

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;">
<div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="OnLive Halloweekend" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-93924" height="106" mce_src="http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/7635/11halloweekend.jpg" src="http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/7635/11halloweekend.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" title="OnLive Halloweekend" width="338" />Stuck at home this Halloween weekend with nothing to do? That’s alright because OnLive has got some plans for you. The cloud video game service has announced that it will be giving away five games just for you to celebrate your Halloweekend at home. Starting today, all the way until Monday, you’ll be able to play Amnesia: The Dark Descent, F.E.A.R. 3, Metro 2033 and Orcs Must Die for the special price of free.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
All you have to do is sign up, install and launch the OnLive app, pick the free game from the Marketplace, Select “Get Game” and 3-Day Rental ($0.00), enter your password and you’re good to go. And after you’re done with those four games, on Monday (October 31<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="sup" mce_style="vertical-align: super;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; vertical-align: super;">st</span>) you’ll be able to get another game for free if you’re a fan of OnLive’s Facebook page. The game hasn’t been announced yet so we don’t know what it is, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a Halloween/horror-themed game.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ubergizmo?a=DA5EkWRYywE:3j03UxGkOHc:qj6IDK7rITs" mce_href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ubergizmo?a=DA5EkWRYywE:3j03UxGkOHc:qj6IDK7rITs" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" border="0" mce_src="http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/7096/81016014.gif" src="http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/7096/81016014.gif" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ubergizmo?a=DA5EkWRYywE:3j03UxGkOHc:gIN9vFwOqvQ" mce_href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ubergizmo?a=DA5EkWRYywE:3j03UxGkOHc:gIN9vFwOqvQ" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" border="0" mce_src="http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/2140/94184690.gif" src="http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/2140/94184690.gif" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ubergizmo?a=DA5EkWRYywE:3j03UxGkOHc:V_sGLiPBpWU" mce_href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ubergizmo?a=DA5EkWRYywE:3j03UxGkOHc:V_sGLiPBpWU" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" border="0" mce_src="http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/5098/91433031.gif" src="http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/5098/91433031.gif" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" /></a></div>
</div>
</div>

OnLive announces free games for this Halloween

Stuck at home this Halloween weekend with nothing to do? That’s alright because OnLive has got some plans for you. The cloud video game ...

Music streaming service Boinc announced

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;">
<div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="150" mce_src="http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/7729/boinc200200.jpg" src="http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/7729/boinc200200.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" width="200" /></div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Beyond Oblivion, a media company part-owned by News Corp. has unveiled a pay-once music streaming service to launch later this year, named Boinc.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The Spotify competitor hopes to differentiate itself as a service that requires only a one-off payment as opposed to a monthly subscription, as well as by coming bundled with PC, tablet and smartphone hardware.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Silly name aside, it's an interesting proposition for consumers; one payment sees you synced to a cloud-based music service forevermore, with replacement devices able to take over if you lose or break your gadget.</div>
<h4 style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Craig David all over your Boinc</span></h4>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Boinc claims to have deals with a "leading" PC maker and smartphone manufacturer in the works, as well as having signed up Universal, EMI, Sony Music and Warner Music for its song catalogue.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
We can't help but worry it's not a sustainable money spinner, however; with one-off income from each user and 70 per cent of its annual fees going to the rights holders on top of royalty pay-per-play costs, it doesn't leave much for the company itself.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Spotify, for example, has long struggled to turn a profit, having had to take drastic measures in order to lure customers into shelling out £5 or £10 a month for a premium subscription.</div>
<h4 style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Boinc your own device</span></h4>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Perhaps Boinc will fare better by asking for the money up front. Call us cynical, but we can't help but feel it sounds too good to be true:</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Unlike any other service currently in the marketplace Boinc offers users access to all music with no download charges, no monthly subscription fees and no ads – while also ensuring artists are fairly compensated," said Adam Kidron, Beyond Oblivion's founder and chief executive.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The company will also be selling Boinc as a paid-for app on iOS and Android devices, with an invite-only beta to hit the UK and US in October.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
All being well, the service will fully launch on our fair shores before the end of the year (presumably that's dependent on all its various deals falling in to place though – we won't hold our breath).</div>
</div>
</div>

Music streaming service Boinc announced

Beyond Oblivion, a media company part-owned by News Corp. has unveiled a pay-once music streaming service to launch later this year, n...

Angry Birds lands on Windows Phone 7, ready to explore the third ecosystem

Angry Birds lands on Windows Phone 7, ready to explore the third ecosystem

Nowadays, you can't really claim to have a mobile OS worthy of the title if your users can't run Angry Birds on it. Good news from ...

Google Books e-book reader now available for Windows Phone 7

<p style="text-align: center;"><br/><img align="right" alt="GBReader_1" border="0" height="288" src="http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/2476/gbreader1.png" style="background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;" title="GBReader_1" width="173" /><br/><img align="right" alt="GBReader_3" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="288" src="http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/7056/gbreader3.png" style="background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px;" title="GBReader_3" width="173" /></p><br/><img align="right" alt="GBReader_2" border="0" height="288" src="http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/8956/gbreader2.png" style="background-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;" title="GBReader_2" width="173" /><br/><br/>Google has not exactly fallen over itself to make its collection of apps and services available on the Windows Phone 7 platform.  This has fortunately however not stopped 3rd party developers from making clients to access these services.<br/><br/>GoReader is a Google Books client for Windows Phone 7 that allows users to access the thousands of free e-books available on www.books.google.com.<br/><br/>The app looks great, is $0.99 with a free trial, and can be found in Marketplace here.<br/><br/>Via <a href="http://www.themobileblog.in/2011/06/26/google-books-reader-for-windows-phone-7-gbreader/" target="_blank">Mobileblog.in</a>

Google Books e-book reader now available for Windows Phone 7

Google has not exactly fallen over itself to make its collection of apps and services available on the Windows Phone 7 platform. This has f...

Microsoft removes Imagewind from Marketplace, WP7 gets first bitter taste of rejection

Oh, sure, it was easy to pick on Apple for all those frustrating App Store rejections over the years, but Google's had its own run-ins with apps being pulled under unfortunate circumstances, and now it's time for WP7 users to get a taste. Microsoft <strike>has pulled</strike> is thinking about pulling Imagewind from the Windows Phone Marketplace, an app that basically pulls random images en masse from the Twitter-stream, splaying them all over your touchscreen. MS indicated that, without some sort of filter to weed out seedy images, the app has to go. Somewhat curiously it's actually been chilling in the Marketplace since March 3rd, and it was only upon reviewing a recent update that someone in Redmond said "Hey, waitaminute!" Imagewind is now gone and honestly we can't say that its rejection is completely arbitrary -- displaying all images the all the time is not necessarily a good thing for sensitive eyes -- but it still stings, doesn't it?<br /><br /><strong>Update</strong>: We got a note from Roger at Smarty Pants Coding to let us know that he's received a "grace period" for the app. It's still available for download, but it could be a limited time thing...<br /><br /><strong>Update 2</strong>: Another note from Roger. The stay of execution has been... unstayed. The app is no more. Break out the trumpets.Microsoft removes Imagewind from Marketplace, WP7 gets first bitter taste of rejection<br /><p><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/01/microsoft-removes-imagewind-from-marketplace-wp7-gets-first-bit/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">via</a></p>

Microsoft removes Imagewind from Marketplace, WP7 gets first bitter taste of rejection

Oh, sure, it was easy to pick on Apple for all those frustrating App Store rejections over the years, but Google's had its own run-ins ...

NES emulator lands on Windows Phone 7, barred from the Marketplace

NES emulator lands on Windows Phone 7, barred from the Marketplace

It's an important time in any young OS's life: NES emulation. Windows Phone 7 has just passed this important puberic milestone, tha...

Microsoft launches new Games for Windows Marketplace

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//classifications/computing/mobile-computing/notebooks-and-tablet-pcs/images/alienware_m17-200-200.jpg"><br /><P>Microsoft has launched its new browser-based Games for Windows Marketplace, offering gamers a new way to download their favourite PC games.</P><br /><P>The new <a href="http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-GB/">Marketplace</A> boasts a pared-down and user-friendly interface, with Live integration – so competitive types can keep track of their Gamerscore. </P><br /><P><STRONG>Deals on PC games</STRONG></P><br /><P>The new design highlights the deals of the week as well as the "DailyDeal", both of which are going to be key aspects of Microsoft's new offering.</P><br /><P>Users can also choose to add Microsoft Points to their Gamertag (Windows Live ID) account, and to buy Games for Windows content.</P><br /><P>Microsoft's <a href="http://windowsteamblog.com/members/Brandon-LeBlanc/default.aspx">Brandon LeBlanc</A> says that the new <a href="http://www.gamesforwindows.com/">Games for Windows Marketplace</A> "is streamlined to provide an easy way for PC gamers to discover, buy, and download their favorite games. </P><br /><P>"Anyone can browse the marketplace, but to buy and download all you need to do is sign in with your Windows Live ID. The Games for Windows Marketplace integrates with Xbox LIVE so if someone signs in with the same Windows Live ID they use for Xbox LIVE, the Games for Windows Marketplace will display their Gamerscore and Xbox LIVE avatar at the top right." </P><br /><P>Microsoft has over 100 game titles in the marketplace from the likes of Capcom, 2K Games, Square Enix, Activision and others.</P><br /><P>Each publisher has its own bespoke Games for Windows Marketplace page for their games and news. <a href="http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/Activision/">Check out Activision's</A> page for an example of how this is going to work.</P>

Microsoft launches new Games for Windows Marketplace

Microsoft has launched its new browser-based Games for Windows Marketplace, offering gamers a new way to download their favourite PC games. ...