iPhone Review: Dead Space

It?s startling what?s possible with technology these days. A few decades ago Pong! was the pinnacle of interactive entertainment, and digital watches were the height of fashion. Nowadays, games such as Dead Space for iPhone offer console-like experiences on pocket-sized devices. Meanwhile, I?m wearing a wind-up watch, so maybe not everything progresses equally.

The term ?console-like experience? is one that gets bandied about a lot on the AppStore, with the likes of the simplistic-but-stylish Infinity Blade making an especially big deal about it. To us, though, the iPhone version of Dead Space is the first title that really lives up to that claim, matching great graphics with decent complexity.

Casting players as a new character in the Dead Space universe, codenamed Vandal, Dead Space for iPhone bridges the game between the 2008 series debut and the more recent sequel. Acting as a secret agent for the church of Unitology, Vandal is manipulated in the opening chapters in order to contribute to the disaster that forms Dead Space 2?s backdrop.


In an effort to escape and repent, Vandal faces off against the now-familiar cast of alien mutants using a semi-familiar arsenal of weapons, plus two all-new additions ? the core extractor and the plasma saw. As with the iPhone version's bigger brother's enemies, you?ll need to blow the limbs off the enemy Necromorphs in order to kill them quickly ? something that?s very impressive to see on a platform as diminutive as the iPhone.

The dissection also makes Dead Space on the iPhone an incredibly gory affair too, possibly more so than any other iPhone game we?ve yet seen. Blowing Necromorphs apart yields a lot of blood and guts, spattering more icky-ness across gross and dark levels ? levels which are stunningly large and detailed too.

It?s not just a matter of running and gunning, however. The iPhone version also features small tactical and RPG choices, just like the console and PC releases. Ammo and health packs are limited resources, which you?ll have to conserve and utilise carefully, although it?s worth mentioning that the iPhone game limits these more stingily than the ?full? game. This is because the iPhone version features micro-transactions, meaning that players are charged extra for weapon upgrades and extra power nodes.


Purchasing these upgrades is optional and it?s possible to complete the game without them, but it?s certainly disappointing to know you might miss some game content without them, especially when Dead Space is far from free to start with.

Despite this one significant shortcoming, however, Dead Space on the iPhone remains an incredibly polished and good looking title. The controls are superb too; the left side of the screen controls movement, while the right pans the camera, and tapping various hot spots lets you use your Stasis ability.

Verdict: While we don?t approve of the micro-transactions that have been cynically forced on to an already premium pp, we can?t deny that Dead Space for the iPhone is a great game, which offers a truly console-like experience.

Dead Space is developed by Electronic Arts and is available for iDevices via the AppStore.

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Bit-Gamer Competition #6

Bit-Gamer Competition #6

Posted on 7th Feb 2011 at 12:01 by Joe Martin with 13 comments

Last week we asked you to let us know what you thought about Sony's newly announced NGP for a chance to win one of two bundles of PC strategy games. Now, we announce the winners and set a whole new competition!

First, we'll set the rules for the new competition. What we want you to do this week is either send us a question or let us know which game you'd like us to discuss in our next games podcast.

We have two sets of prizes to give away, one for the forums and one for Facebook.

If you want to enter via the forums then all you need to do is drop your answer in the comments to this article for a chance to win a copy of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on the Xbox 360, plus Daniel Wilson's How to Survive a Robot Uprising book!

If you want to enter via Facebook then you should tell us on our Facebook page for a chance to win Medal of Honour on PS3, plus a copy of Chris Ryan's novelization. You can, of course, enter both as many times as you want to increase your chances of winning.

As for who won the last competition, we've selected two random winners from Facebook and Twitter and quoted them below. We'll be in contact with both of you to let you know how to get your prizes!

Twitter Winner - Adam Maturo
"@Bit_Gamer I think the NGP looks awesome. But it'll probably be really expensive and the back touch panel seems like a gimmick."

Facebook Winner - Lee Thompson
"I'm very much looking forward to the Sony NGP. It's quite a powerful piece of kit, addresses the serious flaw in the PSP (the dual thumb sticks) and the games should be amazing.

"Questions remain though - battery life, price and developer support. Hopefully it won't be hacked and piracy doesn't kill it in the same way that happened to PSP. If it's put on sale in the £300-£350 mark, it might well be the first console I pick up on day 1."

Good luck everyone!

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AT&T announces unlimited calling to any mobile number

Do Anonymous Leaks Have a Future?

While the U.S. government tries to build a case against WikiLeaks, the secret-document publishing site run by Australian hacker-turned-celebrity Julian Assange and currently hosted in Sweden, an entire new generation of WikiLeaks-inspired services, enabling anonymous, secure submissions of leaked documents, is springing up around the world. Although the technology for these sites may be solid, however, potential leakers and those to whom they leak face growing threats from the law, and from outright spying.

One recently launched outlet is the Al Jazeera Transparency Unit, which encourages people to upload documents, photos, and videos "to shine light on notable and newsworthy government and corporate activities which might otherwise go unreported [...] from human rights to poverty to official corruption." New York Times executive editor Bill Keller has said his newspaper is planning "a kind of EZ Pass lane for leakers," although the Times has so far declined to give out specifics. And a former WikiLeaks employee, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, used last month's World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, to announce the test launch of OpenLeaks, which is intended not to serve as a document repository itself but to provide enabling technology for media outlets, NGOs, and other organizations to create their own drop boxes for leakers.

Anonymous-submission technology is tricky to implement but easy to understand. First, the receiving site needs to be unable to trace the source computer from which leaked content is uploaded. WikiLeaks directs contributors to use the Tor service, which routes Internet connections through a chain of servers, each of which can identify only the previous computer in the chain. By bouncing a connection around the world a few times, Tor makes tracing the originating computer extremely difficult (watch a video that shows how Tor works.)  WikiLeaks also allegedly keeps no logs of connections from outside computers that could perhaps help trace them.

Second, the receiving site needs to be protected from snoopers monitoring its incoming and outgoing traffic, which might help identify sources. WikiLeaks is currently hosted by the Swedish ISP Bahnhof, which encrypts all traffic through its network?essentially routing its customers through a virtual private network?so that not even Bahnhof employees can see what is being sent to and from WikiLeaks.

Such precautions go a long way toward protecting the source of a leaked document, but they don't protect the receiver and publisher of leaked information from legal action. Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University, thinks The New York Times and Al Jazeera will need to be more cautious than Assange about what they accept and publish. "Because it is not organized under the laws of any nation, [WikiLeaks] is less vulnerable?though I would not say invulnerable?to legal pressures from various state actors," he says. "But a newspaper opening its own drop box using OpenLeaks is in a different position. This might factor into sources' decisions, and it might affect how many news organizations take up OpenLeaks on its offer to provide the technology."

Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of Law at Harvard and Co-Founder of the Berkman Center for Internet a Society, says the situation is complicated and uncertain. "In the U.S., leakers face the Espionage Act," he says. "Leak sites could potentially be accused of 'aiding and abetting,' though the political costs of pursuing such a prosecution could be high."

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Do Anonymous Leaks Have a Future?

While the U.S. government tries to build a case against WikiLeaks, the secret-document publishing site run by Australian hacker-turned-celebrity Julian Assange and currently hosted in Sweden, an entire new generation of WikiLeaks-inspired services, enabling anonymous, secure submissions of leaked documents, is springing up around the world. Although the technology for these sites may be solid, however, potential leakers and those to whom they leak face growing threats from the law, and from outright spying.

One recently launched outlet is the Al Jazeera Transparency Unit, which encourages people to upload documents, photos, and videos "to shine light on notable and newsworthy government and corporate activities which might otherwise go unreported [...] from human rights to poverty to official corruption." New York Times executive editor Bill Keller has said his newspaper is planning "a kind of EZ Pass lane for leakers," although the Times has so far declined to give out specifics. And a former WikiLeaks employee, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, used last month's World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, to announce the test launch of OpenLeaks, which is intended not to serve as a document repository itself but to provide enabling technology for media outlets, NGOs, and other organizations to create their own drop boxes for leakers.

Anonymous-submission technology is tricky to implement but easy to understand. First, the receiving site needs to be unable to trace the source computer from which leaked content is uploaded. WikiLeaks directs contributors to use the Tor service, which routes Internet connections through a chain of servers, each of which can identify only the previous computer in the chain. By bouncing a connection around the world a few times, Tor makes tracing the originating computer extremely difficult (watch a video that shows how Tor works.)  WikiLeaks also allegedly keeps no logs of connections from outside computers that could perhaps help trace them.

Second, the receiving site needs to be protected from snoopers monitoring its incoming and outgoing traffic, which might help identify sources. WikiLeaks is currently hosted by the Swedish ISP Bahnhof, which encrypts all traffic through its network?essentially routing its customers through a virtual private network?so that not even Bahnhof employees can see what is being sent to and from WikiLeaks.

Such precautions go a long way toward protecting the source of a leaked document, but they don't protect the receiver and publisher of leaked information from legal action. Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University, thinks The New York Times and Al Jazeera will need to be more cautious than Assange about what they accept and publish. "Because it is not organized under the laws of any nation, [WikiLeaks] is less vulnerable?though I would not say invulnerable?to legal pressures from various state actors," he says. "But a newspaper opening its own drop box using OpenLeaks is in a different position. This might factor into sources' decisions, and it might affect how many news organizations take up OpenLeaks on its offer to provide the technology."

Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of Law at Harvard and Co-Founder of the Berkman Center for Internet a Society, says the situation is complicated and uncertain. "In the U.S., leakers face the Espionage Act," he says. "Leak sites could potentially be accused of 'aiding and abetting,' though the political costs of pursuing such a prosecution could be high."

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G.O.P. Leaders Yield to a Push for More Cuts

In response to complaints from rank-and-file Republicans that the party was not fulfilling a campaign promise to roll back domestic spending this year by $100 billion, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee said his panel would abandon its initial plan and draw up a new one to slice spending more aggressively.

?Our intent is to make deep but manageable cuts in nearly every area of government, leaving no stone unturned and allowing no agency or program to be held sacred,? Representative Harold Rogers, the Kentucky Republican who leads the committee, said.

The reversal was the most concrete demonstration yet that the wave of fiscal conservatives who catapulted Republicans into the House majority is reshaping the political and policy calculations being made by the party leadership. It highlighted the challenges Republican leaders face as they try to enact a spending plan for the balance of this fiscal year before a March 4 deadline, and portends further clashes as Congress turns to battles over raising the federal debt ceiling and adopting a budget for next year.

Senate Democrats, who will have to negotiate with their Republican counterparts in the House, quickly criticized the plan, accusing Republicans of slashing too deeply into programs like community law enforcement while refusing to end subsidies to powerful allies like the oil industry.

?In many cases, these proposals may mean taking workers off the assembly line or taking teachers out of the classroom or police off our streets,? Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader, said.

?After all, you can lose a lot of weight by cutting off your arms and legs,? he added. ?But no doctor would recommend it.?

The $100 billion goal set by the House Republicans as they sought to defeat Democrats in November was to come from requests from the Obama administration for the 2011 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. Some of those requests were significant increases that were never enacted, so the cuts being sought by Republicans may still fall short of the $100 billion target ? though they would be far-reaching in the domestic programs that would absorb the brunt of them.

The initial Republican plan called for $35 billion in cuts for the balance of this year, which has more than seven months yet to run. Republican leaders had said that figure was equivalent to about $74 billion in cuts had they been applied to the full fiscal year, measured against the budget request made last year by the Obama administration.

But that argument rang hollow to many conservative Republicans who did not relish the idea of explaining to constituents why the new majority was coming up short of the pledge. After Republicans challenged the plan in a closed-door party meeting on Wednesday, Mr. Rogers and his fellow Appropriations Committee leaders say they now intend to provide new cuts that would meet the target of eliminating $100 billion from Mr. Obama?s request in ?one fell swoop.?

Republican leaders signaled that they now intended to seek about $25 billion in additional cuts over the balance of the fiscal year. That would bring their total proposed reductions to more than $60 billion, a level that even some Republicans have warned would be disruptive to government services.

The change was a significant complication for the new House leadership, which had hoped that their original proposal would mollify their membership while setting the stage for a compromise with the Senate and President Obama. The deeper cuts will make reaching that compromise more difficult, though they could provide Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio added leverage in future negotiations by showing the pressure he is under from the right, forcing Democrats to make some concessions.

After a Thursday night meeting to rally House Republicans, party leaders said lawmakers were coalescing behind the new plan even though some of the cuts could be politically troublesome.

?We are going to take some tough steps, but I think the American people expect it,? said Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the No. 3 House Republican, who credited newly elected Republicans for pushing to wring out more savings.

Even with added cuts, the budget plan is unlikely to satisfy all Republicans. Some want even deeper reductions, and others are insisting that any budget bill bar the government from spending money to carry out the new health care law ? a provision certain to be summarily rejected by Senate Democrats and the White House.

?If we don?t fight on this ground, there will not be ground this good to fight on again,? said Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa. He said he was inclined to oppose any measure if the health care law was spared.

The widening division between House Republicans and Senate Democrats raises the prospect that they will be unable to reach agreement to finance the government through Sept. 30 and will instead have to rely on a series of brief extensions. In the event of a total impasse, the government could shut down as it did in 1995.

Republican officials would not divulge details of their planned cuts. But previous disclosures by the Appropriations Committee showed the reductions would reach deep into energy, environmental, education, transportation and housing programs, and totally eliminate more than 60 other federal initiatives.

Republicans were hoping to approve the plan next week. But the struggle by the Appropriations Committee to identify additional cuts could throw off the timetable, delaying a vote and pushing a showdown with the Senate closer to the March 4 expiration of the current spending law.

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GetRaised helps you get the salary you deserve.

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Have more info on this story?
Contact us!

GetRaised is a service that determines if the salary you are receiving is fair. It is the current project from the web collective Churnless.

The website is very simple to use without the need to register. The salary assessment is free. It took me about 1 minute to get my results. The salary engine is fed data from government reports, current job postings and users information, to ensure that the information it displays is correct and up to date.

If you?re underpaid it shows you on a graph where you are and what the average salary is. If you would like to use the service further you are then asked to register.  It then asks you to pay a $20 fee and answer a few questions to create a custom Raise Request letter to show your boss. It also offers advice from experts in employment and human resources. If you haven?t received a raise in 6 months  the fee is refunded. The average raise earned using GetRaised is $3,078.

Competitors include, Payscale and Salary both have a harder to navigate website and a far more arduous process to quantify the average salary in a certain field.

If you?re looking to start a new job or want to quickly check to see if your salary is fair give it a try.

About the Author

Fatema is the West Coast editor of TNW she is based in San Francisco. Fatema writes about startups and entrepreneurs. Email her Fatema@thenextweb.com and Follow her on twitter @FatemaYasmine

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Obama Says Plan to Expand Wireless Access Is Critical

?This isn?t just about a faster Internet or being able to find a friend on Facebook,? Mr. Obama said in a speech at Northern Michigan University here, after viewing a demonstration on long-distance learning over the Internet.

?It?s about connecting every corner of America to the digital age,? the president said. ?It?s about a rural community in Iowa or Alabama where farmers can monitor weather across the state and markets across the globe. It?s about an entrepreneur on Main Street with a great idea she hopes to sell to the big city. It?s about every young person who no longer has to leave his hometown to seek new opportunity ? because opportunity is right there at his or her fingertips.?

In his State of the Union address last month, Mr. Obama called for securing high-speed wireless coverage to 98 percent of all Americans within five years. On Thursday, the White House released details of how he would spend billions of dollars for the plan, which also includes a high-tech wireless public safety system that would tie cities and towns together in the event of a national emergency like the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Under Mr. Obama?s proposal, which the White House maintains would also raise enough revenue to cut the deficit by $9.6 billion over the next decade, the government would nearly double the wireless spectrum available for mobile broadband. That would be achieved in part through ?voluntary incentive auctions? in which broadcasters, who license the spectrum through the Federal Communications Commission, would release some of it back to the government, which would in turn sell it to wireless companies.

The administration calculates that the auctions, coupled with more efficient government use of the spectrum, would raise $27.8 billion in revenue over the next decade. But that figure depends on whether broadcasters cooperate, and it is difficult to know whether the administration?s calculations are correct.

?A plan such as this necessarily requires a lot of assumptions,? Matt Wood, associate director of the Media Access Project, a nonprofit advocacy group, said in an e-mail. ?It is very hard to predict exactly how much money these auctions would raise, and how much will have to be shared with incumbent licensees. Thus, while these initiatives may be on the right track, questions remain as to whether this plan will work.?

Mr. Obama is also asking Congress to make a one-time investment of $5 billion to bring wireless coverage to rural areas, and is proposing to spend $3 billion of the spectrum proceeds on research and development into new wireless technologies. And the president is calling for a $10.7 billion commitment to support what the administration describes as a ?nationwide wireless broadband network? for public safety.

The plan, which will be included in the budget Mr. Obama releases next week, requires Congressional approval at a time when Republicans have said they are interested in cutting federal spending. Mr. Obama?s trip to northern Michigan was his latest appearance across the country to promote an agenda of selected investment in areas like clean energy, education and infrastructure that, the president maintains, will create jobs and boost the still-fragile recovery.

Mr. Obama chose Marquette, a city of about 21,000 on Lake Superior on Michigan?s Upper Peninsula, because Northern Michigan University has worked on ways to expand wireless access for students and the surrounding areas. For more than a decade, the university has given a new laptop to every incoming student.

The university has also joined up with business to build what Mr. Obama called ?a high-speed, next-generation wireless network,? and worked with nearby towns to expand the network by retrofitting their cell towers with new equipment.

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Bit-Gamer Competition #6

Bit-Gamer Competition #6

Posted on 7th Feb 2011 at 12:01 by Joe Martin with 13 comments

Last week we asked you to let us know what you thought about Sony's newly announced NGP for a chance to win one of two bundles of PC strategy games. Now, we announce the winners and set a whole new competition!

First, we'll set the rules for the new competition. What we want you to do this week is either send us a question or let us know which game you'd like us to discuss in our next games podcast.

We have two sets of prizes to give away, one for the forums and one for Facebook.

If you want to enter via the forums then all you need to do is drop your answer in the comments to this article for a chance to win a copy of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on the Xbox 360, plus Daniel Wilson's How to Survive a Robot Uprising book!

If you want to enter via Facebook then you should tell us on our Facebook page for a chance to win Medal of Honour on PS3, plus a copy of Chris Ryan's novelization. You can, of course, enter both as many times as you want to increase your chances of winning.

As for who won the last competition, we've selected two random winners from Facebook and Twitter and quoted them below. We'll be in contact with both of you to let you know how to get your prizes!

Twitter Winner - Adam Maturo
"@Bit_Gamer I think the NGP looks awesome. But it'll probably be really expensive and the back touch panel seems like a gimmick."

Facebook Winner - Lee Thompson
"I'm very much looking forward to the Sony NGP. It's quite a powerful piece of kit, addresses the serious flaw in the PSP (the dual thumb sticks) and the games should be amazing.

"Questions remain though - battery life, price and developer support. Hopefully it won't be hacked and piracy doesn't kill it in the same way that happened to PSP. If it's put on sale in the £300-£350 mark, it might well be the first console I pick up on day 1."

Good luck everyone!

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Hardware 18 - 46 Different Flavours

Hardware 18 - 46 Different Flavours

Posted on 5th Feb 2011 at 12:53 by Podcast with 10 comments

This week's hardware podcast involves Paul, Harry, Clive and Antony and starts out on a fairly serious note as we talk about the current problems surrounding Intel's P67 and H67 chipsets. We offer advice to those of you who've purchased an affected board and discuss what those of you who are in the market for an upgrade should be doing.

Harry then fills us in on the latest happenings from the labs while also giving a sneak peak on what he's been testing for the last couple of days. It?s worth having a listen if you?ve got your eye on a new graphics card purchase sometime soon.

Hardware 18 - 46 Different Flavours Hardware 18 - Available in 47 Different Flavours

We also set our usual Guess the Hardware competition, with a limited edition Steel Series Starcraft II mouse mat and a 13in Brenthaven laptop case up for grabs. All you have to do is identify the piece of hardware that we describe and email your answer to podcast@custompc.co.uk.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware podcast features music by Brad Sucks and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the forums.

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