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Ragnarok Online celebrates its ninth anniversary in style
Celebrating the anniversary of Ragnarok Online isn't a new thing -- the team at Gravity Interactive has been doing it every year -- but to help ring in the MMO's ninth anniversary, the publisher is throwing what it calls "one of the biggest in-game celebrations to date for RO veterans!" The theme this year is "Where the Old Meets the New," thrown in celebration of the defeat of the Demon Satan Morroc and the discovery of the New World. Sound like fun to you? Then head over to the game's main site to sign up or visit the game's Facebook page to join the community. [Source: Gravity Interactive press release]
Australia's initial 3DTV broadcast will be delivered OTA
Australia's getting its first 3D at home OTA, as Channel Nine will have a free-to-air broadcast of three New South Wales Rugby League (rugby is all about the 3D) matches May 26. This is the first we've heard of anyone sending HD 3D over radio waves, and to accommodate things the government has apparently provided additional spectrum in the form of two bonded channels for the one-time event. Nine is looking into technology to transmit a 3D signal that's backwards compatible with 2D televisions so it doesn't need the additional bandwidth, but for now early adopters will have to retune their TVs to catch the channel when the time comes. The short term future of 3D could continue to be terrestrial only as cable and satellite providers on the continent haven't announced any tests for this year, but we'll be waiting anxiously to hear how well it works -- watching Glee in 2D just doesn't satisfy anymore.
Australia's Seven, Nine and Ten not leaping to add new digital channels
Australia's Seven, Nine and Ten -- the three free-to-air networks in the country -- are now free to launch new digital channels to supplement their current offerings, but on the whole, there's not much excitement about doing so. Thus far, the only one that has even announced plans to launch a new channel with distinct programming is Ten, which hopes to debut a 24-hour HD sports channel dubbed One. If everyone would follow suit, the commercial networks alone could offer a total of nine stations with unique programming. Sadly, the networks have known about this opportunity for two years now, but it seems to us that everyone might be waiting around for another to seriously approach the opportunity before they follow suit. Monkey see, monkey do, right?
Turf war down under: Seven's TiVo getting muscled out by Nine and Ten?
If you thought it was hard to keep track of the network players in the US, check out the roster in Australia. Seven Networks has been representing for TiVo for less than a year, but is now getting competition from Channels Nine and Ten. New markets don't just develop overnight, so the competition coming in the form of FreeView is no small thing. No knock on TiVo, which gets lots of love here in the US, but FreeView has a wide range of OEM and broadcaster support. And that broadcaster support may push things in FreeView's favor, forcing Seven to abandon plans to make TiVo a centerpiece of an Australian TV platform. Sad to think that the TiVo bleeps and bloops down under could go silent, eh?
Australia / India Twenty20 match to be aired in 1080i
In what's believed to be an Australian first, the Twenty20 matchup between Australia and India is slated to be aired in 1080i. The event, which will occur on February 1, 2008 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, will be shot and broadcast in high-definition on Australia's Nine Network. The announcement is coming in the midst of competition between Seven, Nine and Ten to ramp up HD offerings, as Ten is already planning to broadcast every single 2008 AFL (Australian Football League) contest in HD while Seven aims to show the Beijing Olympics in 1080i. Meanwhile, we Americans will be gearing up for Super Bowl XLII.
Apple: Nine ringtones is too much
Now this is just getting silly. Apparently there is a bug with the iPhone where if you try to automatically sync more than eight ringtones up, only the first eight will sync. Nine, according to Apple, is too many ringtones to automatically sync up at one time. To get more than nine on, you've got to select the actual ringtones in iTunes, and set the iPhone to manually sync "selected ringtones."We can't see how there's any feasible reason for that-- except that somehow, in Apple's contracts with AT&T or the record companies, it was specified that only eight ringtones can be synched at any one time. Loony. Either that, or this a just plain passive-aggressive swipe at the folks actually trying to get ringtones past Apple on the iPhone.At any rate, slow down on the ringtone syncing, there, buddy. Nine is way too many.
Dragon's Quest IX gameplay snippets
So, Dragon's Quest IX was announced for the DS recently, and though your classic J-RPG senses tingle, they may in fact go quite unsatisfied. As the mainstay series moves to a portable platform, there will also be some significant shifts in the classic DQ experience.DQIX seems to be leaning toward the action-RPG end of the role-playing spectrum, as the traditional random battles have been replaced by a Chrono Trigger-style "see the enemies in the field of play" approach. As all four characters' motion and actions are controlled independently, Square-Enix is pushing a four-player cooperative mode (via Wi-Fi? We still don't know) into the game. The players need not stay together; for instance, one player could journey into a nearby cave in search of treasure, while another can head back to town to pick up some much-needed curative supplies. Sounds simple, yet cool.Stylus control will be implemented, though details remain sketchy; Dragon's Quest IX will be released in 2007, and details remain awesome.
