Monthly Archives: March 2015
Apple Now Lets You Trade in Competing Smartphones
Apple is now accepting rival companies' smartphones for credit toward a new iPhone.
The Apple website gives customers in the U.S., U.K., France and Italy the option to exchange Samsung, Sony, Blackberry and HTC devices –– among others –– for a gift card in the expanded trade-in program. However, IGN reached out to several Apple retail locations in the U.S., and none of them could confirm that the change had been applied in stores yet.
"We didn't receive a release or anything," one Apple employee in New York said. "But non-Apple devices are definitely eligible online."
Some of the devices listed online include the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Sony Xperia Z3 and BlackBerry Z30. By trading in a Galaxy Note 4 (in good working condition) customers get a gift card worth about $290 USD (€270) toward the purchase of an Apple device.
Disney Lines Up Live-Action Remake of Mulan
Hot on the heels of Cinderella's box office success (and SNL's spoof of a Bambi remake starring The Rock) comes the news that Disney is planning on remaking yet another of their animated blockbusters as a live-action film.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio is developing a live-action retelling of their 1998 animated film Mulan by buying "a script by writing team Elizabeth Martin and Lauren Hynek that centers on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan." We're the Millers' Chris Bender and J.C. Spink will produce.
Disney Lines Up Live-Action Remake of Mulan
Hot on the heels of Cinderella's box office success (and SNL's spoof of a Bambi remake starring The Rock) comes the news that Disney is planning on remaking yet another of their animated blockbusters as a live-action film.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio is developing a live-action retelling of their 1998 animated film Mulan by buying "a script by writing team Elizabeth Martin and Lauren Hynek that centers on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan." We're the Millers' Chris Bender and J.C. Spink will produce.
Mortal Kombat X Will Let You Sample DLC Characters
You'll be able to try downloadable Mortal Kombat characters in special Towers without purchasing them, according to series director Ed Boon.
Boon told AngryJoe that one of the special Tower types would give players a chance to sample DLC characters, as long as they log in and try the fighter during the event's duration. As an example, he cited Jason Vorhees, who was recently announced as a playable character.
"Every day when you come on, there's going to be three Towers in the Living Towers section. One changes every hour, one changes every day, and one is called a Premiere Tower, which is like an event tower. So for instance, if Jason comes along, we're going to have a Jason Tower, where you play as Jason and fight up in it--and you can even use that tower if you didn't even purchase Jason. So it's really cool, it gives players a taste of what the character is like to play."
Mortal Kombat X Will Let You Sample DLC Characters
You'll be able to try downloadable Mortal Kombat characters in special Towers without purchasing them, according to series director Ed Boon.
Boon told AngryJoe that one of the special Tower types would give players a chance to sample DLC characters, as long as they log in and try the fighter during the event's duration. As an example, he cited Jason Vorhees, who was recently announced as a playable character.
"Every day when you come on, there's going to be three Towers in the Living Towers section. One changes every hour, one changes every day, and one is called a Premiere Tower, which is like an event tower. So for instance, if Jason comes along, we're going to have a Jason Tower, where you play as Jason and fight up in it--and you can even use that tower if you didn't even purchase Jason. So it's really cool, it gives players a taste of what the character is like to play."
Capitalism Is Killing Games, Says Oddworld Creator
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty creator Lorne Lanning has denounced capitalism and its influence on the games industry, saying that the industry's hope lies in indie gaming.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Lanning voices a wariness of capitalism and the way it pushes for constant, exponential growth amongst triple-A game developers and publishers. As a result, Lanning says, publishers have become more and more risk-averse due to the sheer amount of money they're investing into their products.
"So the budget's going up, and now
saying, 'Now we're spending $20 million on a title and not $5 million, and at $20 million, we need better terms," Lanning says. "You're going to do 10 times the work, but you're going to get a fifth of the backside because we're risking all this money.' Depending on how savvy they would be with the deals, usually they never made money. Most developers never really made money. They were able to stay in the business. But the way the deals were structured, they were basically dead."
Capitalism Is Killing Games, Says Oddworld Creator
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty creator Lorne Lanning has denounced capitalism and its influence on the games industry, saying that the industry's hope lies in indie gaming.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Lanning voices a wariness of capitalism and the way it pushes for constant, exponential growth amongst triple-A game developers and publishers. As a result, Lanning says, publishers have become more and more risk-averse due to the sheer amount of money they're investing into their products.
"So the budget's going up, and now
saying, 'Now we're spending $20 million on a title and not $5 million, and at $20 million, we need better terms," Lanning says. "You're going to do 10 times the work, but you're going to get a fifth of the backside because we're risking all this money.' Depending on how savvy they would be with the deals, usually they never made money. Most developers never really made money. They were able to stay in the business. But the way the deals were structured, they were basically dead."
Mortal Instruments TV Series Headed to ABC Family
The bestselling YA franchise The Mortal Instruments will live on as a television series entitled Shadowhunter at ABC Family.
THR reports that ABC Family has given a straight-to-series order to the one-hour drama series based on Cassandra Clare's six novels.
Shadowhunter will follow Clary Fray (played by Lily Collins in the film), who discovers she's from a long line of Shadowhunters--human-angel hybrids who hunt demons. After her mother is kidnapped, Clary gets caught up in demon hunting with Shadowhunter Jace and her best friend Simon. She's then thrust into a world of supernatural creatures including warlocks, vampires, werewolves, and faeries.
Mortal Instruments TV Series Headed to ABC Family
The bestselling YA franchise The Mortal Instruments will live on as a television series entitled Shadowhunter at ABC Family.
THR reports that ABC Family has given a straight-to-series order to the one-hour drama series based on Cassandra Clare's six novels.
Shadowhunter will follow Clary Fray (played by Lily Collins in the film), who discovers she's from a long line of Shadowhunters--human-angel hybrids who hunt demons. After her mother is kidnapped, Clary gets caught up in demon hunting with Shadowhunter Jace and her best friend Simon. She's then thrust into a world of supernatural creatures including warlocks, vampires, werewolves, and faeries.
Scientists Find New Dinosaur in Siberia
Paleontologists at the Tomsk State University in Russia say that fossils recovered in 2008 belong to a species of dinosaur previously unknown to science.
The find appears to come from the Titanosauriformes group - which includes some of the largest reptiles to roam the planet - making it big news for Siberian fossil hunters since no bones from this group of dinosaurs have been found anywhere else in Russia, according to the Siberian Times. The bones will be housed at Tomsk State University, which provided a few images of the artifacts and the dig.