Casual games maker PopCap Games has just announced that a brand new position has been created in the company: VP of Video Game Platforms. Filling in this position would be Greg Canessa, former GM for Microsoft's XBLA service. With this appointment, the company is hoping to be able to further expand its reach to video game consoles, handhelds, as well as related online gaming services.

According to the newly-appointed Canessa,

From the Xbox 360 video game console to handheld videogame devices and more, PopCap's lineup of casual games are really well suited for a wide range of platforms, and I'm excited to have this opportunity to help guide PopCap's future growth.

For those who are not familiar with this man, he is one of those who helped define and manage Microsoft's online games strategy, and has been an early advocate of bringing casual games to the Xbox 360. To date, six titles from PopCap Games have already been released on the XBox and Xbox 360, both of which have proven to be successful.

So, does this mean more Zuma and Chuzzle goodness on all major platforms. We'll find out soon enough in the months ahead.

It's been a whole decade since the classic FPS Duke Nukem 3D was released, and it's been a little less than that since we were promised a sequel. Well, we're not really hanging on to the prospect of seeing the fabled Duke Nukem Forever on shelves anytime soon, so instead, here's a video by soueldi who somehow managed to run the original Duke Nukem game on, of all things, his Nokia N73 mobile phone.

Now, we're not exactly sure if this is really the actual game running on the handset, or if it's just a video of the game being played back on the phone's screen. Not much detail accompanies the video clip that we have here, except for a note that what we're seeing is a beta version "for symbian 3rd" , and a link which points to a zip file which you can download and perhaps install on your own phone, if you really want to have Duke with you wherever you go. We are yet to test out this file for ourselves, though, so we're not sure if this will actually work. However, feel free to have a go at it if you think you're phone can handle this application.

Barely a month after its unveiling, and even though it isn't even available to the public yet, it seems that Apple may already have to start picking up the pace even at this stage. As it turns out, a quick search around the Nokia website reveals that their engineers are already working on something that, admittedly, looks cooler than the iPhone.

As seen in one of the photos, this new work-in-progress unit from the Finnish mobile phone company has been dubbed as "Aeon". No, they're not the ones from Final Fantasy X (no, the blue one isn't "Shiva", and so on).

If it turns out that this will be the look of Nokia's next generation handsets, then Apple may be in trouble. Not only does the Aeon look very pretty, but as with most current Nokia phone models, it will also most likely be 3G-capable, one main feature which the iPhone still lacks.

There still isn't much data about this new contraption, but we'll be keeping an eye on it to see if this new idea pushes through.

When hearing the word "Machinima", one of the first thing that comes to mind would be the Machinima film fest, where many video gems have been born. However, it isn't ALL about that, as many people forget that Machinima is also a company that makes games themselves.

Recently, Katherine Kang, the CEO of Fountainhead Entertainment and co-founder of The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences, revealed in an interview that their company will be branching out into the mobile games industry, and that they would now be focusing on this particular aspect of the business.

Kang has also noted that they would be mostly developing RPGs, using the BREW development platform.

Asked about the biggest hurdles that they may be facing in this endeavor, Kang has noted that they are expecting to face numerous issues, which include "Size limitations, device-specific hardware and software issues, and carrier specific software issues."

For the whole interview, just click on the "Read" link below!

After it has just been pointed out how delayed the iPhone actually is because of its lack of 3G technology, rumors are now spreading, saying that this little deficiency will be patched up. So, if you were considering getting yourself an iPhone in the future, then you might want to hold out a bit longer since it may be that a 3G-capable "iPhone2" may already be in the works with the FCC.

As to why the iPhone didn't have 3G in the first place, a network engineer for the iPhone has been quoted for saying that this is because "less than 1% of Cingular customers have HSDPA capability" and that "he target users wouldn't know the difference anyway".

So, with an audience who normally spends only up to US$ 200 on a new cellphone, will having 3G-capability finally convince consumers to shell out US$ 499 or US$ 599 for a mobile phone? Stay tuned.

While technophiles the world over got worked up and hyperventilated at Steve Jobs' announcement of the iPhone, the Japanese simply looked up a while from their keitai, then went on with their business. And the reason for this? The fact that the iPhone has nothing new to offer to them.

While Jobs boasts of the iPhones new interface, the Japanese are finding it hard to believe that it is a "revolutionary product" that will "change everything". Apple also notes that the iPhone can be used to download music and surf the internet, as well as support one-way conferencing in the future. Over at Japan, the whole population have already been doing all this for years. On top of that, most phones can support five-way video conferencing, and their mobiles can also be used to buy train tickets, pay for taxi rides, design a webpage, update a blog, pay for puchases at the convenience store, book hotel reservations, watch a movie or the latest baseball game, use GPS, get exclusive content by scanning a barcode on the seats at the baseball stadium, and an entire plethora of other features and uses which Apple still seems to be clueless about (they should probably start off by checking out Strap-Ya, or something).

All this can again be attributed to one main attribute that Apple is missing, and that would be 3G technology. At the moment, the iPhone is still on a second-generation network.

So, when Japanese retailers were told about the amazing, new iPhone and its features, one shopkeeper merely laughed and said, "Sounds like business as usual".

So, after an entire year of waiting, speculating, theorizing, and guessing, Apple then unveils the much-awaited iPhone (though they might want to consider a name change soon, with Cisco breathing down their necks. iCell doesn't sound so bad...).

So with that entire year in mind, Gizmodo has compiled a gallery which showcases the number of iPhone renditions which were done by people who hoped that the then-mysterious product would look the way that they envisioned it. After all, sparks went flying when we first saw it on the back of a magazine in March 2006, and then the deluge started.

So how close was everyone's guess to the actual product? See for yourself.

View the rest of the non-iPhones after the Jump!

Uh-oh. Could it be that Apple is getting a taste of its own medicine? After its history of suing various individuals and companies left and right for various forms of copyright or trademark infringement, it looks like Apple is now being sued for the exact same thing.

Now, we've seen this looming over the horizon for quite some time now, and apparently, not even filing for rights to the "iPhone" trademark has saved Apple from the eyes of Cisco Systems. Tsk, tsk. And to think that everyone was so excited to just see Apple unveil its new toy.

On January 10, iPhone trademark">Cisco representatives announced that they have filed a lawsuit against Apple, Inc. at the District Court of Northern California, "seeking to prevent Apple from infringing upon and deliberately copying and using Cisco's registered iPhone trademark".

As explained on the company website, here's what happened, and why they should be considered as the true owners of the trademark, "iPhone":

Cisco obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 after completing the acquisition of Infogear, which previously owned the mark and sold iPhone products for several years. Infogear's original filing for the trademark dates to March 20, 1996. Linksys, a division of Cisco, has been shipping a new family of iPhone products since early last year. On Dec. 18, Linksys expanded the iPhone family with additional products.

Moreover, according to Cisco's senior VP Mark Chandler, they have "entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco's iPhone name", but that Apple "should not be using our trademark without our permission".

Thanks to zerox for the tip!

It has always been said that if you need something, you'd find it on eBay. As for the stuff that you DON'T need... well, you'll find those on eBay as well. With a reputation for having been the online auction place which sold things like private jets, cornflakes, sandwiches in the shape of Jesus, ex-boyfriends, used toothpicks and wads of gum chewed by celebs, eBay can now add yet another item to its repertoire: mobile game companies.

If you would recall, a company called Tesseraction Games previously leased out their talents via online auction. This time around, the entire company Robotube Games is up for grabs online with a starting price of US$ 850,000. The winning bidder of this auction (if any) will be getting intellectual property rights to eight mobile phone games, and 34 flash games, as well as all their assets, and even the whole staff who promise to work for you for at least three years, provided you pay them salaries that are "equal to current industry standards".

Though Robotube is mainly a company that makes games for mobile phones, it has been noted that given the right funding and materials, they can possibly develop games for the Nintendo DS as well.

Anyone interested?

The people behind the One Laptop Per Child Project may have just discovered a breakthrough in digital security as the programmers and designers involved have been taking advantage of the hundred-dollar laptop's (recently dubbed as 2B1) start-from-scratch approach.

The 2B1 is a bright-colored, hand-cranked and wireless-enabled laptop that the people from OLPC have been developing. The laptops are to be distributed among children in various nations in an effort to improve education. With this goal in mind, the designers have been challenged to come up with a system that would cost only a hundred dollars per unit. The 2B1 will be using the free operating system Linux, a flash memory instead of a hard drive, and a microprocessor that requires minimal power.

The designers of the 2B1 are also testing their current designs with security experts, so that the said laptops can also be set up without the need for anti-virus software.

At the moment, standard computers allow files in them to be accessed by almost any program out there. This often leads to programs being exploited by hackers to either steal or erase the information in the machine. However, the 2B1s will cause any application to remain in a certain sector, and the files that it can access will also be limited, in such a way that if the security were to fail, special encryption will prevent the BIOS from being corrupted which may cause the laptop to be unable to boot up.

Also, the laptops will also back up their data in the server when the 2B1s get within wireless range of the children's school, so that should a child lose data, he or she would just simply have to get within that same wireless range to restore the files.

Could this same technology also be applied to other, non-kiddie laptops? We'll see.