.| UrbanNerd |.

FIC’s taking more than just a page from the Linux community with its FIC-GTA001 smartphone—its taking their entire playbook. Hoping to capitalize on what is essentially free programmers for the project, FIC is releasing a Linux-based smartphone complete with an SDK (Software Development Kit). This allows end-users to develop their own programs and functionality for the phone (picture an army of geeks making sure you can play back DivX on your phone).

The phone itself has a 2.8-inch VGA display, USB mesh file sharing, multi-touch sensor recognition, GSM, GPS, 128MB RAM, a Samsung ARM9-based processor and MP3 playback capabilities. The concept of their multi-touch gestures is that you can use two fingers to control a variety of tasks, such as two finger scrolling like the PowerBooks and MacBooks. Some demo pics of the gesture abilities after the jump. Even though the phone will probably only sell to DIY-ers and Linux enthusiasts, there may be some interesting applications that come out of this.

Check out more here Slashgear

I found this while searching for Dell coupons. Please read this carefully. There are not typos. Yes, they will be “GIVING” away 100 PS3′s @ the Union Square Store in NYC. Try to plan your schedules accordingly, if you work in that area of Manhattan it will be crazy!!! Like Eddy, except without the death part… maybe!

Microsoft Corp. will unlock the digital-distribution capabilities of its next-generation console, Xbox 360, to Hollywood studios beginning Nov. 22.

Xbox 360 gamers in the U.S., totaling at least 3 million, will be able to purchase TV shows and download them to their gaming hard drive as well as rent and watch movies on their consoles.

The first wave of content will include dozens of high-definition and standard-definition offerings from such partners as Warner Bros. (“Batman Forever,” “V for Vendetta,” “The Nine”), Paramount Pictures (“Nacho Libre,” “Jackass: The Movie”), MTV Networks (“South Park,” “SpongeBob SquarePants”), CBS (“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Survivor”) and Turner Broadcasting (“Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” “Robot Chicken”).

Xbox 360 represents the first video game console to secure programming from major content providers as well the opening of a new front in digital-media distribution alongside the likes of Apple’s iTunes and Verizon’s VCast.

Microsoft director of platform strategy Scott Henson said there will be thousands of hours of television and movie content available on the console’s virtual storefront, Xbox Live Marketplace, by year’s end.

“The reason the Hollywood studios are excited to partner with us is because we have this 18- to 34-year-old demographic that’s extremely valuable and attractive to the networks and content providers,” Henson said. “This is a great opportunity to reach them in a different way. I think you’re going to see because of that a lot of other studios jumping on board over time with additional TV shows and movies.”

Microsoft isn’t divulging pricing yet on TV shows or movies, but Henson said it will be competitive with other digital offerings, with HD content slightly more expensive than standard definition.

TV episodes will be updated on a regular basis and available for purchase as early as the day after they air.

Read the Rest here

Just when we started believing that the 20GB Xbox 360 drives were big enough to satisfy, along comes the best evidence yet of more spacious disk appendages. Microsoft hasn’t officially let the kitty out of the bag, but Plaid Ninja snapped this screenshot at the Xbox Live event tonight. It shows 70 gigs of free space on a 360. If the timing is to coincide with the new download service, we’re talking about seeing these things before Q4 is up.

Question: How will we transfer games from one HDD to the upgraded drive?

Plaid Ninja’s Flicker

Source: SEGA of America, Inc.

SEGA® of America Inc., SEGA® Europe Ltd. and Marvel Entertainment, Inc. announced today that they have entered into a worldwide licensing agreement whereby SEGA has secured the exclusive rights to develop and distribute video game titles for all platforms based on Marvel’s renowned “Iron Man” property. Under the multi-year agreement, SEGA has been granted the exclusive interactive rights to develop and distribute games based on both Marvel’s Iron Man feature films and the classic comic book iterations of the character. The “Iron Man” agreement represents the first step in a strategic partnership between Marvel and SEGA to bring at least one additional Marvel Super Hero property to next-gen platforms.

The first “Iron Man” project produced under the license agreement will be based on Marvel Studios’ highly-anticipated Iron Man feature film starring Academy Award® Nominees Robert Downey Jr. and Terrence Howard, and directed by Jon Favreau. This project, the first feature film to be produced independently by Marvel Entertainment, will blast into theaters May 2, 2008.

“Marvel is recognized as one of the world’s leaders in the entertainment industry and SEGA is excited to be publishing the next-gen interactive entertainment based on ‘Iron Man,’ the first Marvel Studios project being brought to the widescreen,” said Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America, Inc. “The ‘Iron Man’ history is filled with compelling and intriguing characters and stories and with the power of the next-gen systems, SEGA will be bringing these characters to life like never before.”

David Maisel, Executive Vice President, Office of the Chief Executive of Marvel Entertainment, added, “SEGA is an excellent partner to bring our ‘Iron Man’ franchise to the next generation consoles. SEGA is a powerful force in the video game space and has always been on the cutting edge of the industry. We are very excited to be bringing ‘Iron Man’ to theaters in 2008 and to team with a great partner to simultaneously introduce ‘Iron Man’ to the video game world.”

Price tag $99… it better be made out of gold!

Purchase the Halo Legendary Edition and receive a Halo Spartan Mjolnir Mark VI Helmet Replica!* Also includes three bonus discs that contain:
Behind-the-scenes at Bungie Studios with new insights into the Halo Universe and the making of Halo 3.
A special hi-res collection of all cinematics from Halo 1 and Halo 2 with director commentary from the Bungie Team bonus
Community content from Red vs. Blue, This Spartan Life and Exclusive Gamer Tiles & a Theme
Each unit will be serialized for added individuality and collectability. Not life-size.
Due to the unusal size and weight of this product an extra $5 shipping and handling fee will be applied to all orders.

*Product specifications are subject to change by Microsoft. Helmet cannot be worn.

Halo 3 is the third game in the Halo Trilogy and will provide the thrilling conclusion to the events begun in Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo 3 will pick up where Halo 2 left off. The Master Chief is returning to Earth to finish the fight. The Covenant occupation of Earth has uncovered a massive and ancient object beneath the African sands – an object who’s secrets have yet to be revealed. Earth’s forces are battered and beaten. The Master Chief’s AI companion Cortana is still trapped in the clutches of the Gravemind – a horrifying Flood intelligence, and a civil war is raging in the heart of the Covenant. This is how the world ends…

Samsung has announced the Syncmaster 225BW. It is their latest LCD monitor, and it is their biggest yet. At 22 inches wide this LCD has a 1680×1050 native resolution (!!), 700:1 contrast ratio and 5ms response time. It has inputs for DVI and composite. Pardon the Borat reference, but, Niiiiiiiiice.

Anticipation is building for the Nintendo Wii launch next week (November 19 is the official date), first there was the WiiSeeker that uses Google Maps to show the allocations of Wii consoles in Target Stores near you, and now denizens of the IGN.com message boards claimed to have figured out how many of the coveted consoles have been allocated to Target stores across the US.

From the looks of the list, most stores will have somewhere between 24 and 40 units available at launch. Jeez, that’s not many. These are going to be a Wii bit hard to get. First, go to this crude search routine (try searching your area code) that helps you find out the store number of a Target store near you, and come back here, follow the jump and you’ll see a list that tells you how many Nintendo Wii units have allegedly been allocated to that store.

Source: DigitalWorld

In what is a hell of a turnaround even by Sony’s standards, the beleaguered Tokyo giant has announced that it really is going to bestow the PlayStation 3 upon the peoples of Hong Kong and Taiwan on November 17 after all. It had previously stated that those countries would have to bide their time alongside our European brethren until March 2007.

The increasingly confused Alzheimer’s sufferer went on to mumble something about letting the rest of Asia have their PS3 fun a week after its pals in Japan, yet still on the same day US nerds get to stand in lines for hours. Shortly after, Ken Kutaragi was seeing looking for his reading glasses underneath the cat

Microsoft officially announced it will launch its long-awaited and overdue Vista operating system on November 30, but for corporate customers only. The rest of us heathen consumers will have to wait until the rumored January 30, 2007 date before we can get our paws on the final code. A Microsoft spokesperson also confirmed that Microsoft Office would also be released on November 30.

The big launch event will be held on November 30 at the NASDAQ Stock Market in midtown Manhattan and the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will reportedly be there, and it was unconfirmed whether he would be jumping up and down wildly, screaming and yelling.

Since we all love XP so much, this Vista thing is bound to be even better. Spread the love, spread the love.

Here