An article on BusinessWeek.com cites Apple as having tapped game publishers such as Electronic Arts and Namco to deliver a slew of casual video games such as Tetris, Pac-Man, Sudoku and Texas Hold’em.
The games, when complete, could be downloaded from the iTunes Store for US$4.99 each with the target market being the customer base that would catch up with a quick game available on their cell phone in the space of an extra 10 minutes. In 2006, the U.S. mobile game market was valued at US$722 million according to research firm IDC. The market is expected to grow to US$952 million in 2007 and reach US$1.3 billion in 2010.
While Apple has kept silent about the possibility of games for its upcoming iPhone and Apple TV products, Mitch Lasky, senior vice-president of EA Mobile, mentioned that “we have been talking to Apple about games on (the iPhone.” Lasky also mentioned that EA sees technologies they’ve become used to from the iPod being incorporated into the iPhone.”
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Macworld News is reporting that Intel researchers are putting an 80-core processor that could perform multiple teraflops (trillions of floating point operations per second) through its paces. The chip design could also use less electricity than a current desktop PC processor.
The processor design fits 80 individual chip cores onto a fingernail-size 275 square millimeter area. According to Jerry Bautista, the director of Intel’s tera-scale research program, the company has no plans to bring the chip to market, but is using it to test high-bandwidth interconnects, revised energy management techniques and new methods of constructing multicore chips.
The design, which currently runs at 3.16 GHz, managed to achieve a 1.01 teraflop rating with an efficiency rating of 16 gigaflops per watt. The chip could have been set to run at a higher speed, but loses efficiency in doing so.
Despite the faster speeds and greatly increased number of cores, the processor is able to save power by placing inactive processor cores into sleep modes, then activating them as needed. The presence of a router built alongside the core allows for a miniature network to be created on the chip. Intel’s engineers have also included memory-based thread scheduling and faster on-chip memory caches to boost the data flow from memory to the processor cores. A layer of “3D stacked memory” located under the chip helps minimize the time, distance and power required to deliver data to the cores.
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Amidst the chaos of Steve Jobs’ open letter regarding digital rights management software in the online music world and the ensuing fallout from both sides of the issue, we wanted to know what you make of of the question at hand. Does digital rights management genuinely change the way you buy music online and what would you like to see changed?

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The Unofficial Apple Weblog is reporting that Apple’s new 802.11n-compatible AirPort Extreme Base Station has been sighted and purchased in Apple Store locations around the United States as well as internationally.
Reports have come in from Indianapolis, London, Connecticut, New York City and Providence, Rhode Island of the units being available.
If you’ve seen the units around or picked one up for yourself, let us know.

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Developer semaja2 has released version 0.4 of InsomniaX, a freeware utility which disables the sleep mode on Apple laptops (useful for tasks such as making an older iBook G4 into a more reliable server, etc.).
The new version adds Intel processor support, sound effects, an unload timer and key bindings for menu items. The program requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to run.
InsomniaX arrives with a few provisos cautioning against running a laptop with a closed lid in order to avoid heat buildup and damage from this. Other existing bugs include the power management unit forcing a shutdown after nine minutes and the screen’s blacklight remaining off when the screen is reopened (the current workaround to this is to open the screen, disable InsomniaX and putting the machine to sleep again via the Command + U and Command + Shift + S keystrokes).
InsomniaX 0.4 is a 1.2 megabyte download available courtesy of MacUpdate.
If you have any comments or feedback, let us know.

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Per Computerworld‘s report, Samsung has unveiled a new phone designed to take on Apple’s iPhone, due to be released in June of this year.
Samsung’s new Ultra Smart F700, will sport a touch screen interface as well as be able to play audio and video files. The unit will support a 2.78″ screen with a maximum resolution of 440 x 240 pixels and measure approximately 4″ in length by 2″ inches in width and about 0.66″ in depth..
In a released statement, the company mentioned that its unit will feature a pull-down QWERTY keyboard and support for 3G technologies, specifically the HSDPA protocol (which features speeds of 7.2 megabits per second) as opposed to the iPhone’s slower supported EDGE protocol.
For the full story and currently supported feature list, click here.
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Accessory supplier FastMac has announced that it will begin selling its new TruePower batteries for Apple’s MacBook laptops.
The batteries, which are due to ship “in 30 days”, retail for US$99.95 as opposed to US$129.00 for Apple’s replacement units. FastMac currently claims the batteries offer 68% more capacity, superior design and materials, an integrated safety circuit to prevent swelling and/or short circuits (this is designed to turn the battery off under extreme conditions) and four times the warranty, FastMac backing the TruePower for a full year as opposed to Apple’s 90 day warranty.
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An article on the Wall Street Journal‘s web site mentions that the EMI music label is currently gathering information from iTunes Store competitors such as eMusic.com, MTV Networks, MusicNet and RealNetworks to determine the possible bottom line from selling DRM-free music.
EMI stands as one of the five major record labels currently selling music online. The firm’s consideration is a departure from the current industry standard which considers copy protection code to be critical in protecting online music sales from piracy. The consideration falls in line with Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ recent open letter suggesting that DRM techniques have proven ineffective and inherently hamper the growth of online music sales.
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Per an article on MacNN, Scion has announced that its entire 2008 lineup will feature iPod connectivity.
The systems will incorporate a 160-watt Pioneer AM/FM/CD system complete with a control and readout that displays the track, artist and album into a one-line display. According to a spokesperson, “Connectivity is achieved by simply plugging the iPod into a port via a connector cable, providing outstanding sound quality through the car’s stereo system and constant power to the iPod. Music is controlled through the head unit and steering wheel audio controls. A standard mini-jack port also allows users to listen to their portable music collection through the tC’s Pioneer speakers.”
The upcoming Scion models will also feature rear head unit outputs that allow for external amplifiers to boost power to the front and rear speakers as well as the subwoofers.
The current pricing model for a base model 2007 Scion tC ranges from US$16,980 for one equipped with a manual transmission to US$17,780 for one equipped with an automatic transmission. Prices for the 2008 models have yet to be announced.

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Despite looking and sounding like an authentic duck, the letter sent to the FCC by Apple Inc. asking the government not to disclose any details about the company’s upcoming iPhone device until June 15th has been proven fake (additional details available over at Jason’s Apple Core blog.)
The request actually applies to Apple’s upcoming AirPort Extreme Base Station, which will be Apple’s first generation of wireless router to run on the 802.11n protocol.
If you have any comments or feedback, let us know.

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