As you might have heard by now, Live support for original Xbox and original Xbox games played on the 360 is being shut off. Of course that includes games like Bungie’s Halo 2, an iconic game in it’s own right and it’s sad to think that it’s day is passing. Bungie however is not going all sad and mushy on us, but wants to send Halo 2 off into the sunset with one last shin-dig:

Mark your calendars now – on April 14th let’s all rally to go online for one last hoorah. One final farewell and one final opportunity for all of you to kick our asses at Halo 2.

So if you’ve got an Xbox of either flavour and a copy of the legendary Halo 2, then get your asses online for one final frag-fest on April 14th. You never know you might even bump into one of the PG staff, just be kind and gentle eh? We’re a crotchety old bunch.

[Bungie.net Via Kotaku]

OK, so there have been quite a few attempts by Sega to get Sonic into the 3D realm, pretty much all of which sucked. It’s ok, not every 2D character translates into 3D and finally Sega seems to have wised up about it because Sonic 4 is going 2D again! I don’t know about you but I still play the odd bit of Sonic & Knuckles and to be honest it’s one of the best retro gaming experiences you can get. So I guess you could say I’m pretty excited about the prospect of a whole new, 2D, back to it’s roots Sonic game. Good news is you don’t need a Gensis, or a Dreamcast for that matter, to get in on the action as it’s going to be digitally distributed across all major consoles including Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360. Rumours are also abound that it’ll launch on the iPhone, but that’s speculation at the moment thanks to a ‘?’ on the official Sonic 4 site.

Anyway, head on over to the site, it’s a bit bare at the moment, but there are lots of count down timers for further information and news, something to keep you occupied while you wait.

[Sonic 4 Official Site Via Sega]

The Apple iPad, revolutionising the way you use the web? Not for me.

It’s here, the mythical Apple tablet, the saviour of the computing universe the Apple iPad. Wait a minute, iPad, you having a laugh? You sure it doesn’t come with ‘flexy wings’ and should be kept in a woman’s handbag? OK.

Yep, the Apple iPad, not the iSlate or iTablet, but iPad. To be honest I’m not quite sure why Apple didn’t call it the iPod touch HD or iPod Maxi, because that’s essentially what it is. A giant iPod touch. I have to admit I’m a pretty heavy Apple user with an iPhone and two Apple laptops but I’m not Mac-centric and still use a PC and the odd bit of Linux and yet I’m a little disappointed by the iPad. Whether it’s realistic or not, I would have liked something more like an OSX touch tablet, not some iPhone OS running maxi iPod touch. In my opinion, the iPad certainly hasn’t changed the computing paradigm as we know it, but perhaps it’s the trojan horse from which more ‘pad-type’ devices can spawn. After all, if we’re to believe Star Trek, we’re all going to have small message pads for documents and work that we type on at break-neck speeds.

Anyway, the proof will be in the playing with it, as to whether it’s any good or not, I’m certainly not going to tell you it’s good or bad without having actually had some serious face time with it. Apple’s trying to slide this one into the space in between your laptop/desktop and your smartphone. I’m not entirely sure there’s actually a market position in there for the iPad to fill. It’s not as capable or cheap as a decent fully-fledged netbook and it’s not as portable as an iPhone or Nexus One, so where does that leave it? (more…)

Now where did I put my board?

[UPDATE] Everything is back up and working. Time to come in and dry off.

Those with an iPhone know that one of it’s greatest strengths is also one of it’s greatest weaknesses. I’m talking about the lack of multi-tasking. How is that a strength you ask? Well it’s down to Apple being single-minded and preventing all but only a few select apps from running in the background that the iPhone is still one of the fastest and most responsive phone experiences you can get, despite being knocked off the top spot by the likes of the Nexus One with it’s 1GHz snapdragon processor. It’s rumoured that Apple will update the iPhone 3G/3GS with some sort of multi-tasking at Wednesday’s event in San Francisco, but whether Apple enables true multi-tasking that fits the bill is yet to be seen. Besides, why wait when you can have true background-multitasking right now? (more…)

Nokia let fly it’s free Ovi Maps turn-by-turn navigation software today at a press event in London, UK. Joining the likes of Google’s Android operating system, all GPS capable Nokia handsets in 74 countries (that’s 73 more than Google) will be able to download and either use over-the-air map streaming or on-board storage. Ovi Maps is powered by the Nokia owned Navteq’s digital mapping and allows for free drive and walk navigation. Map updates, events, Lonely Planet and Michelin guides plus the potential for any number of map overlays will be available over the air. Depending on whether developers get on board with Ovi Maps we could see quite a few 3rd party extensions and apps making Ovi Maps more of a platform than the likes of TomTom or Navigon.

It’s available now for the following phones: X6, N97 Mini, E72, E55, E52, 6730 Classic, 6710 Navigator, 5800 XpressMusic, 5800 Navigation Edition and the 5230 with more to be added at a later date. So if you’ve got a Nokia GPS smartphone and fancy a bit of free turn-by-turn then head on over to Nokia’s download portal.

Another nail in the coffin for TomTom, a shot at Google with wider distribution and a shot across the bow of Apple, who at this point must be prepping something along the lines of Ovi Maps/Google Maps Navigation surely?

[Via Nokia Conversations]

Hit the jump for some videos demonstrating the Ovi Maps software. (more…)

Well here’s an interesting development, Apple has invited a couple of gaming news organisations like Kotaku to it’s January 27th event in San Francisco. Now we already know from their tagline that it’s something new, which most people presume to mean the Apple tablet. We also know that Apple has been making larger and larger strides into the gaming market with the iPod touch and iPhone with the help of big name developers and indie studios alike. Does the inclusion of gaming press mean that Apple is going to aim it’s ‘Latest creation’ with much more of a gaming bent?

Without the confines of the smaller for factor of the iPod touch, many will be expecting more umph and processing power in any tablet that Apple may or may not ship. Perhaps we’ll see some decent graphics hardware in there too. After all, the Nvidia Ion (9400M) is already in the MacBook Pro line, so inclusion in the tablet isn’t as far as stretch as you might think, even if the rumours ring true about an ARM processor powering the device. Of course the Apple tablet might just end up being a massive iPod touch, which I don’t know about you but I would be extremely disappointed about.At this stage though, the fact that we’re even talking about a tablet device is just down to rumour and speculation. Who knows, Apple might have pulled a fast one on us with all this tablet subterfuge and in reality has a games console under development. The Apple TV on steroids perhaps. All we know is that until Steve busts it out at the event it could be anything, so we’ll have to just wait and see.

The long rumoured, often talked about date is now official. Apple has sent out invites to the great and the good inviting them to be at an Apple event held on the 27th of January in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco at 10AM PT, that’s 6PM GMT for those of us not in the US. Apple always has taglines for these events and this one is a real rumour fan: ‘Come see our latest creation’. Now I’m always one to look at things with extreme skepticism (one of the virtues of being British), but if that doesn’t scream out Apple Tablet, I don’t know what does.

So browsers at the ready for all you Apple fanboys and iTablet/iSlate fanciers, this one is going to be interesting!

[Via Engadget]

Google’s been forever tantalizing us with tasty names for it’s various iterations of Android. First we had the calorie laden ‘cup cake’, closely followed by the coppers favourite, ‘donut’. Then there was the ‘eclair’ (2.1), which by all accounts has been the sweetest and best to date. Those with their whits about them may have realised that the next in the series will start with an ‘F’, with most people’s money on ‘flan’. My hopes were dashed however moments ago when Erick Tseng, speaking on the Engadget Show, announced that the next iteration of Android was to be called ‘Froyo‘. Yep, that’s right, the healthier ice cream replacement, Frozen Yoghurt. Details other than the name are a little thin on the ground, but at least when it comes along we’re already au fait with the name.

What’s next Google? Something sordid like Gateaux? Or maybe something a little healthier like Granola?

[Via Engadget]

So, if you’ve been watching the CES coverage at all, you probably will have seen some hands on with the D-Link Boxee box. It’s an off angle cube powered by Tegra 2 and dishes out all the Boxee goodness straight to your TV. But wait, you can already run Boxee on an Apple TV, Windows, Mac or Linux and the XBMC spin-off has just made the beta available to the general public. (more…)