The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of The Dawn Treader

This time around – Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, along with their pesky cousin Eustace Scrubb – find themselves swallowed into a painting and on to a fantastic Narnian ship headed for the very edges of the world. Joining forces once again with their royal friend Prince Caspian and the warrior mouse Reepicheep, they are whisked away on a mysterious mission to the Lone Islands, and beyond. On this bewitching voyage that will test their hearts and spirits, the trio will face magical Dufflepuds, sinister slave traders, roaring dragons and enchanted merfolk. Only an entirely uncharted journey to Aslan’s Country – a voyage of destiny and transformation for each of those aboard the Dawn Treader – can save Narnia, and all the astonishing creatures in it, from an unfathomable fate.

Apple's Mac App Store to launch January 6

The Mac App Store was unveiled at an Apple event in October.

(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

Apple will be launching its anticipated Mac App Store on January 6.

The store will be available in 90 countries at launch, and like its mobile counterpart, it will feature access to both paid and free apps across several categories, including education, productivity, and games, among others, Apple announced today. Users will be able to download the Mac App Store through Software Update.

The Mac App Store experience will be familiar to those who currently have iOS-based devices such as the iPhone. The marketplace's users will be able to get information about apps prior to downloading them, as well as see customer ratings and reviews. Updates to apps users have installed will be available through the Mac App Store, Apple said.

"The App Store revolutionized mobile apps," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a statement. "We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun."

Developers who choose to offer paid apps will be able to keep 70 percent of the revenue generated from their programs, while Apple will take the remaining 30 percent. In addition, those who offer free apps will not be charged by Apple to offer their programs in the Mac App Store.

Apple did not immediately respond to request for comment on how many apps would be available in its marketplace at launch.

The Mac App Store's January 6 launch date is perhaps a bit ahead of schedule. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the Mac App Store in October, he indicated that it would be available to Mac OS X users within 90 days, prompting some to believe the store would launch at the end of January.

The Mac App Store will only be available to Mac OS X Snow Leopard users at launch. It will also come with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, which is expected to be released next summer.

The movie of the week

Tron: Legacy

“TRON: Legacy” is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that’s unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), a rebellious 27-year-old, is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his father Kevin Flynn (Oscar®- and Golden Globe®-winner Jeff Bridges), a man once known as the world’s leading video-game developer. When Sam investigates a strange signal sent from the old Flynn’s Arcade—a signal that could only come from his father—he finds himself pulled into a digital world where Kevin has been trapped for 20 years. With the help of the fearless warrior Quorra (Olivia Wilde), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe—a universe created by Kevin himself that has become far more advanced with never-before-imagined vehicles, weapons, landscapes and a ruthless villain who will stop at nothing to prevent their escape. Presented in Disney Digital 3D™ and scored by Grammy® Award-winning electronic music duo Daft Punk, “TRON: Legacy” hits U.S. theaters on Dec. 17, 2010, in Disney Digital 3D™ and IMAX® 3D.

The best game of 2011

2011 is shaping up to be one of gaming's biggest years ever. Practically every month next year will see at least one or two blockbuster releases. To make sense of the madness, we've put together a handy list of all the game announcements that have a specific release date or seasonal window.

Games coming in 2011 with no other specific release information were left off for now until we hear more. Wondering where The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, X-Com and your favorite 3DS games are? Once their publishers commit to tighter release dates, we'll update our timeline to include them. Yeah, we're playing hardball.

We'll be updating this list throughout the year, so make sure to bookmark it and keep checking back.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Rob Marshall, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” captures the fun, adventure and humor that ignited the hit franchise—this time in Disney Digital 3D™. Johnny Depp returns to his iconic role of Captain Jack Sparrow in an action-packed tale of truth, betrayal, youth and demise. When Jack crosses paths with a woman from his past (Penelope Cruz), he’s not sure if it’s love—or if she’s a ruthless con artist who’s using him to find the fabled Fountain of Youth. When she forces him aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the ship of the formidable pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), Jack finds himself on an unexpected adventure in which he doesn’t know who to fear more: Blackbeard or the woman from his past.

The international cast includes franchise vets Geoffrey Rush as the vengeful Captain Hector Barbossa, and Kevin R. McNally as Captain Jack’s longtime comrade Joshamee Gibbs, plus Sam Claflin as a stalwart missionary and Astrid Berges-Frisbey as a mysterious mermaid. In theaters Memorial Day weekend, 2011.

Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) finds himself on an unexpected journey to the fabled Fountain of Youth when a woman from his past (Penelope Cruz) forces him aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the ship of the formidable pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane).

WikiLeaks.info rebuts malware warnings

WikiLeaks.info, a site assisting WikiLeaks' effort to share U.S. war information and diplomatic cables, is rebutting online security organizations' warnings that its Web could be dangerous to visit.

WikiLeaks.info provides a list of sites that mirror the original WikiLeaks content, and in recent days the main WikiLeaks.org Web site has redirected visitors to the WikiLeaks.info mirror page. WikiLeaks.info has grown in importance because of others' moves two weeks ago that made it difficult to reach WikiLeaks.org and led its operators to resurface at WikiLeaks.ch, a Swiss domain.

Spamhaus, a nonprofit volunteer organization that seeks to curtail spam, phishing, botnets for network attacks, and malware, issued a "malware warning" yesterday for WikiLeaks.info.

WikiLeaks.info "is hosted in a very dangerous 'neighborhood,' Webalta's 92.241.160.0/19 IP address space, a 'blackhat' network which Spamhaus believes caters primarily to, or is under the control of, Russian cybercriminals," Spamhaus said. "Our concern is that any Wikileaks archive posted on a site that is hosted in Webalta space might be infected with malware. Since the main wikileaks.org website now transparently redirects visitors to mirror.wikileaks.info and thus directly into Webalta's controlled IP address space, there is substantial risk that any malware infection would spread widely."

WikiLeaks.info strenuously objected to the warning today.

"We find it very disturbing that Spamhaus labels a site as dangerous without even checking if there is any malware on it. We monitor the wikileaks.info site and we can guarantee that there is no malware on it," the WikiLeaks.info site said.

WikiLeaks.info is only "very loosely" affiliated with the official WikiLeaks effort, a WikiLeaks.info representative told CNET. "In, fact we were caught [by] surprise on last Saturday as we all of a sudden had 1 million hits per day on our Web site. The switch"--when WikiLeaks began redirecting visitors to the official WikiLeaks.org site to WikiLeaks.info--"was not discussed with us."

Spamhaus' services for tracking dangerous domains are widely used globally, so the warning carries significant weight. And although Spamhaus said it "takes no political stand on the WikiLeaks affair," its actions pose a further difficulty for those allied with WikiLeaks' cause.

WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange was arrested last week in the U.K. for possible extradition to Sweden, where he faces allegations of sex crimes. Assange denies the alleged crimes. A British judge ruled he could go free on bail yesterday, but prosecutors are appealing that decision. The prosecutors' challenge is expected to be heard tomorrow, according to Reuters.

More directly related to WikiLeaks' mission is the possibility of prosecution in the the United States for violation of the Espionage Act.

Spamhaus also warned that WikiLeaks.info is relying on Heihachi.net, "a provider run 'by criminals for criminals,'" for Domain Name Service (DNS) needs. DNS is a technology that converts the Web addresses people type into the numeric Internet addresses computers actually use to communicate.

Here again, WikiLeaks.info objected.

"We do not know who else is hosted with Heihachi Ltd and it is none of our business. They provide reliable hosting to us. That's it," WikiLeaks.info said on its Web site.

WikiLeaks is concerned about its reputation. "That's why we contacted Spamhaus to find out if they could remove us from the list," the WikiLeaks.info representative told CNET. Spamhaus hasn't responsded, according to the WikiLeaks.info Web site.

WikiLeaks.info selected its services to avoid further problems with interrupted Net service, the site said. "WikiLeaks has been pulled from big hosters like Amazon. That's why we are using a 'bulletproof' hoster that does not just kick a site when it gets a letter from government or a big company," the site said.

Spamhaus is not alone in its concern. On Sunday, security company Trend Micro also warned of the Heihachi.net connection.

"Heihachi Ltd. is known as a bulletproof, blackhat-hosting provider in Russia that is a safe haven for criminals and fraudsters. It hosts a long list of criminally related domains. Among these domains are banking fraud domains, carders' (criminals who trade stolen credit card information) websites, malware sites, and phishing sites. No matter what your political view is, this is rather disturbing," Trend Micro senior threat researcher Feike Hacquebord said. "We assess the wikileaks.info domain as highly risky and we do not recommend visiting this site as long as it is hosted by Heihachi."

Updated 7:17 a.m. PT with comments from WikiLeaks.info.

Batman Arkham City

Arkham Inmates in His Own Backyard

With last year’s Batman: Arkham Asylum nearly achieving mythical status, receiving the “Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever” Guinness World Record, it’s not exactly a secret that its sequel is fervently awaited. It’s called Batman: Arkham City, and much of the same creative team will be involved, which is always a plus for a sequel, particularly when its predecessor was so popular. Rocksteady has said that Arkham City builds upon the dark, atmospheric Batman mood established in the original. As the title and slogan “Arkham has moved” imply, the scope of the action expands from the constraints of the last game’s insane asylum to the thick of Gotham City.

This is because Quincy Sharp, the old warden of Arkham Asylum, has become Gotham’s mayor, and decides to relocate inmates to a heavily-guarded slum overseen by the dubious psychiatrist, Hugo Strange. Meanwhile, Two-Face, looking to up his badass quotient, decides to publicly execute Catwoman in the compound, hoping to gain the admiration and respect of Arkham’s rapscallions and his fellow villains. Once Batman catches wind of the scheme, he decides to infiltrate Arkham City and save his one-time love interest. With the Joker, Harley Quinn, and Mr. Freeze all slated for appearances, the cast of Arkham City is going to be an all-star one.
In addition to rescuing his girlfriend (or girl-foe), the Caped Crusader is also bent on uncovering the gritty details of Dr. Hugo Strange’s past, as well as his true intentions for Arkham City’s inhabitants. The sequel’s story seems fairly complex, and Rocksteady says that there will be more plot-fueling interaction between Batman and villains, not just back-and-forth pummeling.

Part detective, part tech hound, and part ninja, Batman utilizes the same combination of gadgets and martial arts he did in the first installment. In fact, you’ll start the game with all the items you acquired in the last game, and some of them will even have different or added properties. There’ll also be new ones like smoke bombs and tracking devices. A notable difference in the battle system will be glorious group brawls, with more enemies attacking you at once than in Arkham Asylum. In this way, you’ll get the sense that Arkham City is the African savannah of Gotham, with ferocious packs fighting to claim turf and Batman just voluntarily wandering in. He’ll be able to taunt enemies and even bust down walls, giving players the element of surprise over their adversaries.

But make no mistake, it doesn’t sound like the game will be using action and battles as crutches. This time, we’re promised more puzzles and opportunities to actively help Batman figure things out and solve problems. The Riddler’s challenges are back, but tougher, and we’ll be able to interrogate enemies, access a criminal database, analyze radio frequencies, and assist Batman with forensic reports. Trophies will also be more difficult to win. However, Detective Mode, a skill Batman used in the previous game to locate hiding spots, enemies, and secret goodies, will be altered in Arkham City. Rocksteady recognized players relied on it too heavily, so its usefulness will probably be toned down this go-around.
Supplementing the main adventure are side-missions for the supporting cast, like the dagger-happy serial killer Victor Zsasz, who’s scarred with self-inflicted tally marks representing his victims. He also appeared in the original game and will reportedly be one of a few characters whose points of view are represented throughout Arkham City. With DC Comics writer Paul Dini returning to pen the game’s story, we can likely expect another rich, quality plot.

There has been no word on any sort of online play or multiplayer modes, however. If included, they’d run the risk of making it feel tacked-on, like so many games do with multiplayer modes. But if single player is anything like the one in Arkham Asylum, we probably don’t have anything to be worried about.
Finally, several voice actors have confirmed reprisals of their roles in Batman’s latest gaming adventure. Mark Hamill stars as the Joker (he says this’ll be the last time he’ll play the role), Kevin Conroy as Batman, and Wally Wingert as the Riddler.
Arkham Asylum left some pretty massive bat boots to fill, and it looks like its sequel is going to have no problems stepping up to the plate. An official release date has yet to be confirmed, but we’re told Batman: Arkham City will hit stores sometime fall 2011.

The 25 best games on Android

Not everyone owns an iPhone, it just seems that way because they get all the coverage. If you own an Android phone, you may have struggled to find the best games – many look like 30-minute creations by junior high students with newfound fascinations for Java. But not all of them - we did some digging, and found plenty of fast-paced and well-designed Android games that are being overlooked. The following 25 have caused us a few sleepless nights and some very sore fingertips.
Note: We avoided emulators or games that are not available in the Android Market, such as Doom. We also picked games that are Android-specific over those that run on multiple devices, only because they usually take advantage of Android hardware in a unique way and run faster. We also considered the price of the game, number of levels, and re-play value.

1. Buka Lite

Free

Buka’s frenetic pace makes it very entertaining. You play as a blue planet which you move around the screen (either with a finger press or by tilting the phone) to avoid solar nasties. Eventually, you can collect health and zap purple and yellow enemies by holding down your finger. Zapping larger orbs breaks them apart, which means a higher score, but the pieces move faster.
Buka has flashy, colorful visuals that get better as you progress. You might actually form a connection with the blue planet as it tries to find its home, which makes Buka a great example of something once thought impossible: a mobile game with character.

2. What the Doodle? Lite

Free

What the Doodle? won the recent Android developer contest. It’s like Pictionary, except with strangers… on your phone. There’s an auto match feature that sets you up with five other players online. You either guess the object another player is drawing or, when it’s your turn, draw the object. It’s a game especially well-suited for touch phones, and it works very well.

3. Graviturn

Free

In Graviturn, you move your phone from side to side to push a red ball off the screen. This sounds easy, but after a few levels you also have to make sure that the green balls stay on the screen, and increasingly numerous blue boxes get in your way. You also have the option (or hindrance?) of adding or removing walls in later levels by clicking on them, adding to the mayhem. Levels are generated randomly (and infinitely) so this free game has great re-playability.

4. Abduction!

Free

Like Doodle Jump on the iPhone, Abduction! is a vertical scrolling game that’s fast-paced and challenging. You play as a cow that jumps on grassy platforms to collect power-ups, such as one that catapults you higher off the pads. There are also “crumble” pads you can only use once before they break apart. The graphics are clear and bright, and the screen refresh is fast. Abduction! is twitchy in a good way.

5. Nintaii Lite

Free

Nintaii has a similar look and feel to Zen Bound on the iPhone. You move a wooden block around a game board to reach a black square. As you progress, obstacles, like raised platforms, increase the game’s challenge. The sound effects are above par (especially the loud clack of the wooden block and the Eastern chants) and the game includes 100 varied levels.

6. Slimeball Speedway Lite

Free

A brilliant game with cartoon-like graphics, Slimeball Speedway is another vertical scroller in which you control a ball rolling down the screen. The action is fast and you have to plan your moves carefully (watch for the little old ladies crossing the street). The blob grows and gets faster as you go, so each level becomes more challenging the longer you stay alive.

7. Go!Go! Rescue Squad

$2.99

There’s a fire, and you've been charged with the rescue attempt. Go!Go! Rescue Squad is a platformer in which you must squelch fires to help victims escape by finding a door. Usually, there’s some other obstruction (like a fallen tower) that blocks their path. You use a fire extinguisher to get the fire under control, and occasionally chuck the whole extinguisher. The colorful graphics are N64-esque and the game has a cheeky, nihilist sense of humor.

8. Totemo Lite

Free

Totemo is a puzzle game that encourages quick reflexes and good planning. Each level has blue orbs that you have to select in a logical sequence – say, in pairs or groups of three. There are stars that block the path; when you click on them, they light up the totem pole and pause the action to make the level more challenging. Later levels are much more complex with more orbs and less-obvious patterns.

9. UniWar

$2.99

With roots in a hexagonal wargame, UniWar is easy to learn and, thankfully, emphasizes fast action over tedious strategy. It’s turn based, but there’s not the typical long pause as the computer plans a strategy and attacks. The main campaign has 20 missions, but you can play 3v3 or 4v4 online on about 50 highly detailed and varied maps.

10. LightUp Lite

Free

LightUp is brain-teaser similar to Totemo where, instead of selecting orbs, you drag your finger along blue squares to light them up. You have to light the squares up sequentially, and the later levels are very challenging, with screen-filling grids and only a few possible solutions.

11. Tangram Lite

Free (99 cents for Pro version)

You might have played with tangrams when you were a kid (or last week) – they’re simple, but surprisingly difficult puzzles which require you to create a large shape out of smaller shapes without overlapping them. Tangram Lite is a nice rendition of the popular puzzle. You can turn the shapes easily and they lock into place without a lot of trial and error. As you progress, the shapes - and the puzzles - get more intricate. The pro version includes 300 puzzles.

12. Robo Defense

$2.99

Robo Defense is the best tower defense game for Android, with sharp graphics and great sci-fi sound effects that aid in strategizing. For example, you might place a few towers that make an obvious "pop" so that you can then focus on other guns, such as a powerful laser, in a different section. The game has 120 levels and each one is complex enough to last about 15 minutes.

13. Word Up!

$1.99, $2.99 for ad-free version

Almost exactly like the table-top game Boggle without the annoying relatives who know way too many words, Word Up! is a timed game where you draw with your finger on letters to make words. (Press C, drag to A, drag to T, release to spell “cat”). When you select a row of letters, the game drops the word below the main screen to let you know you selected a real word. It keeps track of the time and your score, and shows you the words you missed at the end.

14. Shoot U! Lite

Free, $2.99 for full game

In Shoot U!, you catapult stick-figure guys out of a cannon. The goal is to hit a star to advance to the next level. The game requires some advanced strategy and challenging physics, because you have to plan which game pieces, including pillars and walls, will get in the way. You have to conserve guys to earn the most points, but a little rapid fire is also fun.

15. Brain Cafe GeoQuiz

$0.99

GeoQuiz is not one of those "brain challenge" games that are supposed to improve your mental capacity. It's a trivia game that plays almost like the Millionaire game on TV without the lifelines. GeoQuiz has a slick and well-designed interface, so it's easy to read the questions and choose an answer. The game has a geographical slant, so many of the questions are related to flags, countries, and capital cities.

16. Gem Miner

$2.20

Based loosely on Dig Dug, but more puzzle-like, Gem Miner has you searching for minerals in a mine. The challenge is in planning out how far you want to go from your base, avoiding the falling rocks, and collecting enough gold and ore for upgrades - such as a ladder (one would imagine a ladder would be very handy when mining).

17. Labyrinth Lite

Free

Labyrinth is based on the classic table-top game which you play by moving a metal ball through a maze, avoiding holes. On Android, the game plays exceptionally well because of the sensitive tilt control of phones like the Nexus One. The Lite version has ten levels and the company is promising a full version later this year. The 3D-rendered graphics look remarkably realistic, and Labyrinth is a great challenge.

18. Baseball Superstars

$5.95

A few Android baseball games, including Homerun Baseball 3D, play okay and have flashy graphics, but Baseball Superstars has more depth. You can choose up to ten different teams, play in season or league mode, and compete in a homerun derby. Player control is easy: there's an on-screen joystick and buttons you press on the screen to swing the bat, hit the ball, and advance to the bases.

19. Plox Lite

Free

Plox is another tower defense game, but this time with small blob-shooting towers you use to block animals walking on a garden wall. Plox has clear and colorful graphics and good squishing-blob sound effects. Since enemies follow a pre-set path on the wall, you can plan your strategy easily. Each of the four available guns are upgradeable, adding a bit more strategic depth.

20. Flight Director Lite

Free

There are a handful of traffic control games for Android, but Flight Director has great satellite background graphics. As planes come in to the airport, you drag with a finger to direct them to an airstrip or helipad. Some of the planes move faster than others and are big enough to get in the way of smaller craft.

21. Zen Table Tennis

Free, ad-supported

The simple play mechanics of Zen Table Tennis make it great: you just move your finger to hit the ping pong ball. On a Google Nexus One phone, which is a fast 1GHz model, the gameplay is fast and smooth. (You can also move the paddle with the trackball.) Play goes to 11 points and, like the real game, you need a two-point advantage to win, which means some hectic back-and-forth action.

22. The Settlers

$4.99

This classic colony-building game is pretty true to the original - you build up a base by first erecting a fishing hub, then upgrade your base and search for resources. The Android version has three environments (forest, snow, and tropics), and the detailed "old world" graphics are crisp and clear.

23. FRG Lite

Free

FRG plays a bit like one of our top iPhone games (Alive 4-Ever). You control a robot that is being attacked by bugs, and are constantly moving and shooting. The smoke effects are top-notch and the sound effects draw you into the action. You can choose from three weapons and two robots in the Lite version, but FRG Deluxe (for $2.99) adds twelve new levels and two extra robots.

24. Tetris

$7.99

EA Mobile has made a faithful rendition of the original Tetris game. The graphics are crisp and colorful, and EA has added a few helpful aids - such as a shadowed version of the brick that appears at the top of the screen.

25. Bebbled

Free

This Bejeweled knock-off is free for Android phones and has some interesting twists on the classic "click jewels in a row to remove them" gameplay. There are two campaigns, 33 levels, and a random, low-pressure "freestyle" mode.

The 30 Best iPhone Apps So Far This Year

Editor’s note: This guest post is written by Alex Ahlund, the former CEO and founder of AppVee and AndroidApps, which were acquired by mobile application directory Appolicious. About this time last year, he gave us his picks of the best iPhone apps of 2009 up until then, so we thought we’d make it an annual tradition.
I’ve been involved in the iPhone app industry since it first began in 2008 and I have to say that it has come a long way. I’ve seen it grow from a meager launch of 500 applications in the App Store to currently over 225,000. In only two years, the industry has matured at hyperspeed. It spawned an entire ecosystem to support it from a multitude of news and editorial resources to developer engines, promotional services and ancillary niches. With over five billion app downloads and a billion dollars at stake, it’s no surprise that the app economy expanded so quickly.
However, the novelty land grab is definitely over. When you run a search on the App Store, most of the gimmicks have already been created—at least twice. Clones still litter the store and it’s becoming even more difficult for quality apps to get noticed. But, if you have a bit of patience and are willing to sift through less exciting apps, there are some fantastic gems just waiting to be discovered.
So without further ado, here are my top 30 picks for applications released this year thus far. Try one or try them all.
Games:
1. Angry Birds
Launch birds from a slingshot to topple buildings and crush piggies. There’s a reason this game has been No. 1 on the Paid List for so long. Addictive only starts to explain it.

2. Plants Vs Zombies
A defense game by casual game creators PopCap. Protect your home from an invasion of zombies by placing plants that shoot, freeze, blow-up, crush, or generally obliterate your foes.
3. Fruit Ninja
So simple, but strangely satisfying. Swipe to slice 3D fruit as it enters your screen. Great visuals and gratifying delivery.

4. Archetype
One of the best 3D arena shooters for the iPhone. Smooth multiplayer and easy handling. If you’re going to play a first-person shooter on the go, this is the one.
5. Rhythm Spirit
A rhythm-fighting game based on Japanese folklore. Very unique with top-notch production values. Can’t go wrong with ninjas, fighting, and music.
6. Ragdoll Blaster 2
Sequel to the fun and creative physics game. Blast ragdolls out of your canon to hit various targets. Tons of levels and really interesting puzzles.
7. Canabalt
The iPhone version of the popular flash game. Original escape game where you run away from impending doom, dodging obstacles and crashing through windows.
8. Chaos Rings
One of the few games priced above $10 that sold really well. A deep RPG with fantastic graphics from Square Enix.

9. The Horrible Vikings
A trajectory game steeped in style. Launch your vikings to hit enemies and items alike. A full upgrade system and use of power-ups adds nice depth.
10. Trenches
Fun side-scrolling strategy game where you employ the use of soldiers, machine guns, rifles and bombs to destroy your enemy.
11. God Finger
Keep your followers healthy and working. Create buildings, farms, and taverns for your peasants to enjoy. Control the weather and become the dictator of your own little world.
12. Parachute Ninja
Fling your ninja ball through the air in this interesting platformer. Reach higher and higher platforms, while avoiding obstacles and enemies.
13. Pocket Legends
This MMORPG deserves attention for an ambitious endeavor. Choose a class and work on leveling up, meeting strangers, and battling enemies.

14. Monkey Island 2
Sequel to one of the best adventure games ever released. More humor, puzzles, and story that we’ve come to expect from this classic series.
15. Zenonia 2
Followup to the hit action RPG Zenonia. With more playable classes, abilities, items, story and artwork, this is a must-have for RPG fans.

Apps:
16. Foursquare
The quintessential geo-social app, Foursquare allows users to ‘Check in’ to locations to earn points and broadcast their location. Get more Check-Ins than anyone and you become the mayor.
17. Groupon
Groupon is a service that offers an extremely marked down deal every day. From restaurants to spas, users have been excited about Groupon since it came out. All the same convenience on your iPhone.
18. iMovie
It made sense for Apple to bring their casual video editing software over to the iPhone when the 4 launched with hi-def recording. Very solid tool for on-the-go editing.

19. Siri Assistant
Your own personal assistant. Ask it for directions. Reminders. General information. Nearly anything. Fun and useful for anyone on the go. (Bought by Apple).
20. Twitter
While nothing new, with the acquisition of Tweetie, the official Twitter has become the best out of them all. Contains all the features you need.

21. Wolfram 
After dropping dramatically from the $50 price tag, Wolfram has become a fantastic knowledge searching tool based on Wolfram Alpha.
22. iBooks
I know, I know. This is a given. Provided with iOS 4.0, iBooks is the defacto book reader. Even so, it’s worth a mention for how elegant and easy it is to use compared to other readers.
23. Hulu Plus
This is something we have been waiting for a while. The downside is that it only offers content for the paid service—not for free as it is on the web. But, if you can pony up the monthly fee, this is a great app.
24. Gowalla
Similar to Foursquare, Gowalla allows users to ‘check in’ to a location to earn stamps. Based on GPS, it’s very addictive earning stamps and a great companion while you are out and about.

25. Dragon Dictation
Finally, an accurate way to dictate voice to text on the iPhone. Speak naturally to send a text message, email, or anything else that can receive inputted text.
26. Free App A Day
FAAD is an interesting service that works with developers to offer up their paid apps for free for a short time period. If you follow the iPhone app, you can snatch up some big name apps, gratis.
27. JotNot Scanner Pro
Make your iPhone into a multi-page scanner. Has a great image enhancing ability and makes saving and sending scans pretty effortless.
28. Text’nDrive 
For those of us with a habit of checking (or even worse, responding to) email while we drive, this app provides a hands-free solution where new messages are read to you and you can respond by voice.
29. Geodelic
An elegant “Around Me” style app showing everything that is near your location. Fun way to discover things you didn’t know existed.
30. Digg
Digg finally made an official app and it definitely didn’t disappoint. Users can look forward to all the same functionality as the native site, as well as easy saving and sharing.

Which apps would make your top 30 list?

Photoshop How-To: Make a New Image Look Old

In this technique, we'll show how to take a crisp, clean vector image, place it onto an old weather-beaten surface, and make it appear as if it had been there for years. While we've seen different variations on this technique before, we'll put our own "down & dirty" spin on it.
STEP 1
You'll need two images for this technique: a sign, poster, or image that you want to appear old and weathered and an old building or wall that contains some texture (wood planks, bricks, etc.). See Figure 1.

Figure 1

STEP 2
Open both images. Choose the Move tool (V) from the Toolbox, then click-and-drag the sign onto the image of the old building. Press Command-T (PC: Control-T) to bring up Free Transform and resize and reposition as needed (Figure 2). Press Return or Enter to apply the transformation.

Figure 2

STEP 3
Choose the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) from the Toolbox. Make a horizontal selection over one area where the wood planks meet (Figure 3). Hold the Shift key and drag over other sets of wood planks, to add multiple selections as shown.

Figure 3

STEP 4
Choose Select > Feather to bring up the Feather Selection dialog, enter 2 pixels, and click OK (Figure 4).

Figure 4

STEP 5
Press Command-L (PC: Control-L) to bring up the Levels dialog. Move the Highlight Output slider (the white one at lower right) toward the left to darken the selected areas (Figure 5). Click OK to close the dialog and then press Command-D (PC: Control-D) to deselect.

Figure 5

STEP 6
Change the layer Blend Mode (of the sign layer) to Overlay and lower the Opacity to 85% (Figure 6).

Figure 6

STEP 7
Choose the Eraser tool (E) from the Toolbox. Click on the Brush picker up in the Options Bar and choose Spatter 39 pixels. Lower the brush Opacity (in the Options Bar) to 20%. Now, erase away areas from the sign to give the illusion of that weather-beaten, wear-and-tear look (Figure 7).

Figure 7

You definitely want to erase some of the edges, but don't forget to erase some larger areas on the inside of the sign, especially over some of the text area. Follow the existing wear spot of the original building image as a guide.

With Internet TV, cable wins even if it loses

Americans, little by little, are cutting the proverbial cord on cable television. But that doesn't mean they're breaking up with their cable companies.

In addition to controlling most of the paid TV market in the U.S., cable companies are also poised to dominate the broadband market. This means that even when people drop their pricey cable TV packages, they're still likely to pay the cable company for access to the Internet, which is used to deliver the video streams to their TVs. For cable operators, it's a "heads we win; tails we win" situation.

Neil Smits, president of Comcast's cable division, admitted as much during the company's third quarter conference call earlier this week.

"If over-the-top comes into being, there is more consumption of online video," Smits said. "We feel very good about our capacity. That is one of the reasons we have invested so heavily in DOCSIS 3 (the cable technology that allows operators to provide download broadband speeds up to 160Mbps). We feel that that big pipe into the house is important and we will continue to invest in speed increases like that, like DOCSIS 3. We think it's an important component and the consumers continue to consume more bandwidth."

So what does that mean for average consumers? For those of us left behind with traditional cable services, it could well mean that the cable companies increase fees in order to pay for the contracts they have with content producers like the TV networks. For those who do leave cable TV, there's a very good chance they're paying the same provider for a different service--broadband access.

"People should not think of cable companies as media companies," said Craig Moffett, a senior analyst at Wall Street equities research firm Sanford C. Bernstein. "They are infrastructure companies. And they are in business to make a return on their physical infrastructure."

But instead of simply raising prices on cable broadband, Moffett said it's more likely that cable operators would move toward usage-based pricing. That way consumers who use more bandwidth to stream movies and TV shows end up paying more per month for service than people who may be getting their video from the traditional cable TV network.

Time Warner has tested usage-based billing, but the company faced a huge backlash from consumers. Still, Moffett said that broadband service providers may have no choice as bandwidth-intensive video streaming services like Netflix become more popular. Sandvine recently issued a report showing that Netflix traffic already accounts for more than 20 percent of downstream traffic during peak times on U.S. broadband networks.

Of course, the number of people today who are cutting their cable cord and watching TV from the Internet is still small. But people are cutting the cable cord. Just ask Comcast, which went on the defensive earlier this week explaining why it lost a net of about 56,000 TV subscribers during the third quarter of 2010. (Comcast announced it had lost 275,000 basic cable subscriptions during the third quarter. Meanwhile it added 219,000 digital TV subscribers. This means that it lost a net of about 56,000 video subscribers during the quarter.)

"All our exit surveys have seen almost no impact (from people switching to Internet TV)," Smits said during the conference call. "We have seen customers who are disconnecting and not going to a competitor. That small number of customers appear to be going over-the-air (using antennas to get free TV) much more than any over-the-top impact (TV from the Net)."

Even though Comcast denies these people are flocking to sites such as Netflix, they have admitted that the weak economy is driving them toward less expensive forms of entertainment. As more content deals are struck with companies such as Netflix, people looking to save a buck on TV, and who also have a broadband connection, will likely gravitate toward the Web for TV and movie viewing.

Netflix, which is just one of many over-the-top video options available to consumers, is quickly expanding its customer base. During the third quarter the company saw its subscriber base jump 52 percent compared to a year ago.

Netflix's CEO Reed Hastings said on the company's earnings call earlier this month that the streaming offer was definitely fueling subscriber growth. Netflix said 66 percent of its subscribers used its streaming content during the third quarter, up from 61 percent in the second quarter and 41 percent during the same quarter a year ago.

Broadband benefits

But regardless of whether this trend continues, Comcast and other cable companies are likely to benefit since they also control the broadband connection into the home. The phone companies' biggest weapon in the broadband fight has been their new fiber-based networks: U-verse for AT&T and Fios for Verizon. These services have competed head-to-head with cable in markets where they're available. But neither AT&T nor Verizon is covering its entire territory with these expensive network upgrades, which means that many customers without access to U-verse or Fios services have the choice of slower DSL or cable. As the numbers show, many are choosing cable.

During the second quarter of 2010, cable captured a record 90 percent of all new broadband additions, according to a report Moffett wrote.

"Cable's broadband dominance opens the door for renewed share gains in the adjacent video market."

--Craig Moffett, senior analyst, Sanford C. Bernstein.

"Cable's broadband dominance opens the door for renewed share gains in the adjacent video market," Moffett said in his report. "Cable companies could simply increase their a la carte broadband prices (since in most markets, households have no other choice for sufficiently fast broadband) and simultaneously drop their video pricing, leaving the price of the bundle unchanged, to recapture video share."

He pointed to an example of this in Albany, N.Y., where Time Warner Cable raised its broadband price by 10 percent for its Internet-only customers to a rate just $2 below its promotional bundled rate for both services. The Internet-only price increased to $54.95 from $49.95. The 12-month promotional rate for video and data was $56.95.

Even without changing its pricing, cable companies are starting to see consumers choose more expensive services with faster speeds. Smits said during the company conference call that more than 20 percent of Comcast's customers subscribe to higher speed tiers of services. He considers the "blast level" services to be 8 Mbps and above. As a result the company saw an increase in the average revenue per user of its broadband services. And with faster 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps speeds on the way, the company has a lot of leg room to up-sell broadband consumers.

Of course, Comcast and the rest of the cable industry are not giving up on their TV business. This week Comcast relaunched Xfinity TV, the company's TV-everywhere on-demand video service. It provides access to 150,000 movies, TV shows, and other premium HD content online and can be viewed on various different devices such as laptops and tablets. The service is available to digital video customers who will get an ID and access to the service at no extra charge. By the end of this year, the company expects to have the service available on Apple iPhones and iPads as well as Android tablets.

The company is also improving its user guide and constantly adding new titles to its video-on-demand service. For the time being, it does not see Netflix or any other Internet-based TV service as a threat.

"I think even Netflix on their own call felt that they were more complementary than anything else to the existing marketplace," Brian Roberts, Comcast CEO said during the conference call. "I think you are also seeing an expansion of usage as you can use more devices. We are very excited about devices like the iPad. It gives us a chance to now start from scratch with a user interface that is using Web technology, not cable box technology."

Firefox 4 release slips to 2011

Mozilla has pushed back the planned Firefox 4 release to 2011, a delay that's no surprise given the difficulties in releasing the first full-featured beta of the open-source browser--but that also gives breathing room for several competitors.

Mozilla had hoped to release Firefox 4 in 2010, but a newly updated Firefox 4 schedule shows the first release candidate arriving in early 2011.

"Development on Firefox 4 has not slowed down, and strong progress is being made daily. However, based on the delays in completing the 'feature complete' Beta 7 milestone against which our add-on developers and third-party software developers can develop, as well as considering the amount of work remaining to prepare Firefox 4 for final release, we have revised our beta and release candidate schedule," said Mike Beltzner, vice president of engineering for Firefox, in a mailing list message yesterday. "The frequent beta releases have been extremely helpful in identifying compatibility issues with existing web content, so we plan on continuing to release beta milestones through the end of December. Our estimate is now that release candidate builds will ship in early 2011, with a final release date close behind."

Six beta versions have arrived in recent weeks, but Firefox 4 beta 7 hasn't appeared, despite more than six weeks of frenzied development. One big issue holding up release has been the integration of Firefox's older Tracemonkey engine for running Web-based JavaScript programs and the new JaegerMonkey engine that draws on Google's V8 engine in Chrome.

Mozilla's arewefastyet.com site shows progress matching Safari and Chrome JavaScript execution speed, but new JavaScript engines can be tough to tune. Several JavaScript bugs are blocking Firefox 4 beta 7.

The JaegerMonkey JavaScript engine in Firefox 4, whose performance is shown here in purple, has proven competitive against the engines in Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome, as measured by the SunSpider and V8 benchmark suites. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: Mozilla)

Among other changes in Firefox 4 are a revamped interface, a Bing search option, hardware-accelerated graphics, the new Jetpack foundation for add-ons to customize the browser, an HTML5 parser to interpret Web pages with the new standard for creating them, and WebGL for 3D Web graphics.

And presenting a major new front in the browser wars, Firefox 4 also works on Google's Android operating system for phones and other mobile devices. Today, the cutting edge in that market is dominated by the WebKit engine used on Android, Apple's iOS, and several other mobile operating systems.

Releasing the new version is important for Mozilla. Firefox remains the second most popular browser as measured by Net Applications usage statistics, but the browser market hasn't been as competitive as it is now in more than a decade.

Firefox and Opera kept the independent-browser fires burning during the years when Microsoft's Internet Explorer was dominant but somewhat dormant after its victory in the first browser wars of the 1990s.

In September's browser usage, IE dipped back below 60 percent share and Chrome gained 0.5 percentage points of usage.

(Credit: Net Applications)

Web technologies started picking up steam again, with Apple's Safari engineers joining the development effort begun by Opera and Firefox, and Firefox started wrenching significant share away from IE. But in the last two years, Google Chrome burst onto the scene, rising rapidly to third place and flattening Firefox's growth.

And even more recently, Microsoft began fighting back again with IE9, currently released in a first beta version. This browser was developed more in the open, letting outside developers get more of a say in its workings, and features many new modern abilities. Perhaps chief among them is ambitious hardware acceleration.

Firefox 4 has hardware acceleration, too, and unlike IE9 offers it for Mac OS X, Linux, and most important the vast number of Windows XP systems still in use.

Firefox 4 beta 1 for Android was powerful enough to run the full JavaScript-intense desktop version of Gmail, including the priority inbox. However, in this case, the Web application fell back to its more basic HTML interface.

Spotify closing in on label deals

The four major record labels are warming up to Spotify, the popular European streaming music service trying to launch in the United States.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and his staff are closer than ever to licensing agreements with the labels and launching in the U.S.

Spotify is still without signed contracts to license music from any top label and there are still numerous points to be negotiated, but the company has never been closer to finalizing deals than now, said multiple sources with knowledge of the talks.

One of the ways that Spotify has stirred the labels is by offering big money advances, the sources said. The amount could not be verified. Spokespeople for Spotify and the labels either were not immediately available for comment or declined to comment.

Spotify managers have promised to launch in the U.S. before the end of the year and up until the past week music executives were very skeptical about the company's chances of meeting that deadline. Spotify has already blown two prior launch deadlines.

Spotify's inability to reach licensing agreements with the labels can be traced to several factors. Some of the labels have lost faith in business models built on giving songs away to consumers free of charge. For some music execs, too many start-ups have attempted this and failed to continue licensing them. The list includes SpiralFrog, Ruckus, and Imeem.

There are also questions about Spotify's ability to turn users of the service's free offering into paying customers. In addition to the free service, Spotify charges for premium service. The rate the company converts free users into paying customers is in the single digits, insiders said. The labels want something closer to 15 percent.

There is little doubt among label honchos about Spotify's ability to attract a large following. The site's user experience has received glowing reviews, even from the likes of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But if the company fails at generating revenue from those users, there is a potential for Spotify to cut into sales from proven revenue producers, such as Apple and Amazon.

So, execs at the major record companies want enough upfront money to mitigate some of of the risks they believe are involved in licensing Spotify. What has impressed some at the labels is the willingness of Spotify's leadership to pay the advances and bet on its own ability to create a winner in the United States.