[Catch of the Day - Thanks Crowyourboat!]

$1,000,058.98…I’m not gonna lie. It’s tempting. [Amazon Thanks Naked Fish!]

Cross-game text chat has been around since April, but voice chat has so far been a no-show. Kotaku writes that they tried to contact Sony for a truly official response, but only received a curt reply:

As you know, we haven’t made any announcements on upcoming firmware and don’t comment on rumour or speculation.

It’s quite possible that the next firmware update will in fact bring cross-game chat, but I think we’re getting a bit too excited over a forum post. [Playstation Forums via Kotaku]

It’s rumoured that Nvidia has won a contract to supply Nintendo with Tegra chips for the next generation DS. The specific chip Nintendo plans on using is unknown, so we don’t know exactly how powerful the next model could be. Considering the current DS runs on two incredibly slow processors, any Tegra would be a huge boost in power.

As a bonus, the source reports that the new hardware should allow backwards compatibility. Hopefully not à la PSP Go, where backwards compatibility really means you have to buy all the games you already own again. [Bright Side of the News via Electronista]

So will there be 1:1 movement, accelerometers or IR bars? We don’t know. All the product promises in terms of functionality is the full gamut of Dual Shock controls (though note one analogue stick is missing), “three dimensional motion sensing” and “super sensitive movement sensors”.

But somehow the Blaze PS3mote promises to be compatible with Sega Tennis and Tiger Woods. Without the full support of EA or Sega (which we’re doubting they have), it’s hard to imagine the controller working very well. But hey, we’re happy to be proven right when it comes out at an undisclosed time for an undisclosed price. [Blaze via ubergizmo]

Too bad if you’ve got a sore leg, right? Thankfully, they’re still investigating what level of uncomfortable shuffling would be deemed suspicious enough to call for a secondary screening.

The project is called Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST), and has also developed machines to measure the interval between heartbeats and how deeply someone inhales.

It’s still all research, but one of the researchers told CNN the program is “doing significantly better than chance”. I’m all for better security, but it sounds pretty invasive. As Joe Stanley of the ACLU is quoted saying: “Nobody has the right to look at my intimate bodily functions, my breathing, my perspiration rate, my heart rate, from afar.”

Unless you’re entering the US perhaps. Welcome to the possible future of travel. [CNN via Kotaku]

I’m sure you get stories like this all the time, and I’m sure the news is old (Xbox 360s break, they suck, haha), but this isn’t so much a story about an Xbox being broken as it is a story about Xbox support failing to repair and identify the problem after a few months and three repairs. I can’t get anyone at Microsoft to even apologise for them messing up over and over time and time again, so I thought I’d take to the internet to see if anyone wants to write about a true Xbox Support horror story. I’m 25 years old, work in a professional office building as a newspaper designer, am married, have a son and am not very dumb.

Xbox got four red lights back in July. My Xbox is still under warranty, but warranty doesn’t cover four red lights. I happily send them $US100. [Ed note: 4 red lights is code for a missing AV cable, but can be caused by other issues. 3 red lights is the famous RRoD and is covered by the warranty.]

Four weeks after putting in the repair order, the Xbox was sent back fixed. It is now August. It took four weeks for the repair to complete in part because of shipping problems, including five boxes being delivered to my door and two instances of undeliverable addresses. Really, the repair only took a week. Getting the correct box to my house took three weeks.

Three weeks after I got it back, on August 27, I got three red lights about ten minutes away from beating Shadow Complex with 100% items found.

About 2 weeks after repair was ordered, Xbox was returned to me – three red lights remained.
About 2 weeks after repair was ordered, Xbox was returned to me – three red lights remained.
About 2 weeks after repair was ordered, Xbox was returned to me – three red lights remained.
(that’s not a typo. I sent it in three times, and it was sent back still broken three times)

It is now October. I took to Twitter to rage about Microsoft and a friend asked me if I checked the lights on the power supply. No person at any point in this repair process going all the way back to July has ever asked me or told me or hinted about or mentioned the light on the power supply indicating the power supply might be faulty. I checked it, and the power supply was orange. I’d bet the very first time I got the three red lights, this might’ve been the problem. Why no one in the process, after the Xbox came back to me “unrepaired,” asked me to check the power supply I do not know.

After much convincing, a new power supply was ordered sent to me by Microsoft. It arrived after a week. The male power supply didn’t fit into my female Xbox port. Apparently, Xbox has used a few different kinds of power supplies over the years.

Today, October 7, the new power supply has been ordered and might arrive in 2-3 weeks (they have to process the request, 7 days they say, and then ship it, 5 days. Add weekends off and time to deliver, and it’ll be 2-3 weeks).

So after all that, I’ve been able to play my 360 for about three weeks total since July… Am I at fault? Maybe 1% of this is my fault – I could’ve looked online for more reasons the three red lights might happen, at which point I would’ve found out about the power supply problem… but still, that’s no excuse, because it isn’t my friends job to fix my console, it is Microsoft’s job, and they have failed.

Andy Phifer
Houston, Texas

I don’t think anyone can blame Andy for not self-diagnosing his Xbox issue. Anyone who’s dealt with any sort of technical support before knows that nothing gets the operator riled up more than a valid self-diagnosis. These calls are heavily scripted to cater to the lowest common denominator.

But when that script clearly can’t diagnose a common problem (more than once) and the customer is punished for months because of it, I mean, come on. Given Microsoft’s apparent fundamental troubleshooting flaws at work in this story, we have a tough time believing that there’s only one “Andy” out there. [Image]

LED colour, to be precise, and I must say the clean, new design is almost good enough to distract me from the fact that this little guy could have really, really benefited from a touchscreen. Almost. It certainly makes the screen a bit harder to see, in any event.

The LEDs are powered by that unique internal battery. You know, the one with the sticker. [YouTube via Engadget]

Examples:

Unfortunately, the system is setup to charge the consumer at maximum from the get-go. Games from the App Store start at free. PSP Mini games start at $US5.

The fact of the matter is, the iPhone gaming experience isn’t all that great. Full-fledged PSP titles should cost more than tiny downloadable apps any day. But there’s no good reason for gamers to pay a premium on PSP titles that are available for less on other platforms, just because they generally pay more for games.

There are multiple fingers to be pointed here. Sony, for not allowing free games, which would inspire some price competition. Sony again, for skimming who knows how much off the top of the price point. (In comparison, it’s known that Apple takes 30% off of the iPhone App Store sales.) And the publishers, who decide to set their games at prices of up to two or three times the cost of the iPhone version.

But the worst part? Not only is the content of overlapping titles generally no better than the iPhone; sometimes it’s worse.

You see, PSP Minis can’t have any network or online features. Nor can they support camera peripherals (a major focus of DSiWare innovation) or DLC. Kotaku just reviewed iPhone port Hero of Sparta. On the PSP it costs triple what you’ll pay at the App Store. Their review? “Simplistic controls, muddled graphics and abysmal sounds turn what was a fantastic iPhone game into a oddly disjointed Playstation Portable experience.” Kotaku’s review of Tetris was much better. But you know what? Tetris costs twice as much on the PSP as it does the iPhone.

Some will say, well, you get what you pay for. But that’s entirely our point. If you glance across the two platforms, you aren’t getting what you’re paying for. You’re either getting less, or you’re getting a lousy port or, best case scenario, you’re getting basically the same thing for more.

Granted, PSP Minis are very new (they just launched today). The platform is young. And kudos to Sony for making the digital leap.

But Sony’s most loyal fanbase—those frequenting PSN and checking out Minis on day one—shouldn’t subsidise a company’s foray into the new digital era. Especially given the relatively high price of the PSPgo, at least compared to other portable devices with a lot more processing power, I think the option for free game downloads—at least for a few approved titles—would be a reasonable thank-you.

I mean, even Apple, who doesn’t provide the most open platforms in the world, has realised the merit of free app/game distribution. One, they’re already making money off the hardware. And two, getting someone visiting iTunes will also get that someone to at least get a glimpse of what else iTunes is selling. Lure them in with a free game and they’ll be more likely to purchase one later.

Stop pricing these games so high, Sony. Open up your platform, just a crack, make yourselves competitive with the App Store. Because, at the end of the day, we’d all prefer to be playing these iPhone games with full-out controllers. But right now there’s quite a lot more iPhones and iPod Touches out there than PSPgos. Don’t blow your (only?) shot to win us back.