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Tellme Beta Review: Voice-Driven Local Search

TellmeWe have been trying out Tellme for a few weeks now, and thought it would be appropriate at this point to let you guys know about the service and what we think of it. If you haven’t heard of Tellme, it’s an application that you install on your mobile phone that aims to allow natural voice-riven mobile search. How does it work? Hit the jump for our full review.

 

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Two New Ways To Get Halo 3 Beta

Master Chief When Microsoft opened their initial sign-up for the Halo 3 multiplayer beta, the form was swamped with gamers hoping to get access online. Now, the company has announced two new ways of getting into the upcoming beta release. First, the company has confirmed that those people buying Crackdown will be able to download the multiplayer beta upon release. Those gamers not willing to pony up the cash to get the game and access will have an alternate method; Microsoft’s “Rule of Three” program. Starting in February, gamers that qualify on Xbox Live and are among the first 13,333 Halo 2 players that register on the official Halo 3 website will also have access to the beta. One would also expect that there will be other promotions in the future to get into the test program as well.

The full press release continues after the jump.


Adobe Photoshop CS3 Beta Now Available For Download

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Design, Software

Alright kids, we know a lot of you have been waiting for this day - especially those of you running those nifty Intel-based Macs like I do. Adobe has made the Photoshop CS3 beta available for download on their website, so run over and pick it up. There is a catch, though. You can run the beta perfectly fine for two days, but after that, it expects a fully operational and legitimate Photoshop CS2 serial number from you, otherwise it will stop working.

Okay Adobe, so now only people who have purchased your old software are allowed to use your beta for more than 48 hours? Right. Let’s see how long this lasts…

Read More | Photoshop CS3 Download

Halo 3 Beta Sign-up Active

Halo 3

The Halo 3 multiplayer beta sign-up is now active at Halo3.com. As previously noted, the beta is anticipated to start in Spring 2007. Users signing up must be 17 years old or older, have an Xbox 360 console with hard drive, an Xbox Live Gold subscription, and have their Microsoft .NET Passport linked to their active gamertag. Right now, the registration server is incredibly slow, so those signing up may have to be a little patient for the server load to drop a bit.

Update: The Halo 3 teaser trailer is now available for download from Microsoft here.

Read More | Halo 3 Official Site

Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta Sign Up Monday

Halo 3 Trailer

Microsoft has just announced that gamers will be able to sign up to participate in the Halo 3 multiplayer beta on Monday, December 4. On that day, people will be able to sign up for the beta by going to www.halo3.com; those gamers selected will get exclusive access to the pre-release code some time around spring of 2007. The sign-up is tied to the debut of a new CGI-rendered trailer for the game set to air on ESPN’s Monday Night Football between 5:50 and 6:20 p.m. PST.

Read More | Gamerscoreblog

Bungie Drops Halo 3 Details On Halo Anniversary

Halo 3 Master Chief

On the 5th anniversary of the release of the original Halo, Bungie has dropped a few more details about the goings-on in the Halo universe. First, a new Halo 3 commercial will air exclusively on Monday Night Football on December 4th, with availability on the Xbox Live Marketplace to follow. The commercial will be entirely in CG, which may be disappointing to hard-core fans looking for new in-game footage, but Bungie promises that the commercial will be something special nonetheless.

In addition, Bungie is promising exclusive Halo 2 multiplayer map content available on the Xbox 360. The content won’t be free, and also leaves current Xbox Halo 2 players in the cold. Bungie holds out a faint hope that the content may eventually make its way to the original Xbox, but realistically, this stands little chance of happening. A side benefit of the exclusive content, however, is the news that the backwards compatibility team will be looking at fixing some existing issues in Halo 2 on the Xbox 360.

Finally, probably the biggest news will be the availability of a public beta of Halo 3 this Spring. It sounds like right now the beta will be a limited multiplayer test, but should be exciting for those anxiously waiting for the next iteration of the franchise.

 

Read More | Bungie

Phantasy Star Universe Beta Extended

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: MMORPG, SEGA, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

Phantasy Star Universe Sega’s beta program for Phantasy Star Universe on the Xbox 360 was initially supposed to end yesterday, October 18th. However, with Sega’s delays in getting the beta into the waiting public, and then the scheduled maintenance for Xbox Live running longer than intended, the beta has been extended through October 21st. While the download is no longer available, gamers that have the beta will be able to play until the end of the week.

Read More | PSO World

Phantasy Star Universe Open Beta For Xbox 360

Phantasy Star Universe Xbox 360 users with an Xbox Live Gold account will be able to participate in Sega’s upcoming open beta test for Phantasy Star Universe on October 11. Sega’s official Phantasy Star Universe site has the details of the open beta. The test itself will run from October 11th through October 18th, and will let users experience some of the online multiplayer functionality of the game. According to the site, the beta will be available on the Xbox Live Marketplace sometime between October 11th and October 12th.

The Xbox 360 version of Phantasy Star Universe should hit stores on the same date as the PC and Playstation 2 versions, October 24th. Xbox 360 users will have their own servers; while PC and Playstation 2 users will be able to interact with each other online, Xbox 360 users will only be able to see other players with the Xbox 360 version of the game. For the final version of Phantasy Star Universe, Xbox 360 owners with either a Silver or Gold account will be able to play online. Phantasy Star Universe will cost $9.99 per month to play. Hopefully the online beta will help Sega avoid the server meltdowns that plagued the Japanese launch of the Playstation 2 and PC versions.

Read More | Phantasy Star Universe

Blizzard Prepping For Burning Crusade Beta

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: MMORPG

Burning CrusadeA forum post from Blizzard’s official World of Warcraft site indicates that the company is laying the groundwork for the first external closed beta testing for their upcoming expansion pack, Burning Crusade. According to the post, selection criteria included past PTR contest winners and BlizzCon attendees, but Blizzard is looking for a wide demographic for their first phase of beta testing. Future beta opportunities will expand this group in the future, but to finally have word that Blizzard is opening up the new content to external users is a great indication of progress towards a final release.

Read More | World of Warcraft Forums via GamerScan


Phantasy Star Universe Servers Crash, To Re-Launch In October

Phantasy Star Universe According to a report on PSO-World, Sega’s launch of their latest in the Phantasy Star series, Phantasy Star Universe has been rescheduled for October. The game went on sale this past weekend, but server problems have forced Sega to pull the Japanese game servers offline as of September 3. Sega has issued an apology letter to gamers, and stated that 30-day free trials will be reset when the game re-launches. In PSO-World’s translation of the letter, Sega will re-open the Network Mode Service on September 6. During September, Sega will be trying to troubleshoot and fix any issues with the online service. On October 1, Sega plans to have the service fully back online, and all free trials will start counting down on that date. Hopefully, Sega can work through their problems quickly; the game is scheduled to ship in the US on October 24, 2006 for the PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 2.

Read More | PSO-World

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