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5.3-inch Spice Stellar Pinnacle Mi-530 hits India with a piquant 5MP front-facing camera
The large phone juggernaut rolls on with word on yet another contender raising its head in India, this time from the Spice stable. While the headline-grabbing 5-megapixel front camera may not be a world first, the Stellar Pinnacle Mi-530 rocks some decent specs for its Rs 13,999 ($260) asking price. The 5.3-inch qHD (960 x 540) IPS display hides a 1.2GHz dual-core chip, 1GB of RAM, 16GB storage, a microSD slot, dual-SIM support and an 8-megapixel rear snapper, all powered by a beefy 2,550mAh battery. We'd have preferred a more recent version of Mountain View's mobile OS instead of the Android 4.0 that the smartphone ships with, but it does attempt to spice up the offering with a bunch of software tricks, including Popup Play and Direct Call. Hardly ground-breaking, but hey, at least self-portrait addicts can indulge themselves without their hands tied.
The Daily Grind: Do narcotics belong in MMOs?
Be it a sci-fi cantina or a fantasy tavern, your MMO's local watering hole no doubt offers a very specific sort of drug: alcohol. But you might have noticed that non-alcoholic drugs aren't usually given the same chance to virtually corrupt you as do more comfortable vices like extreme violence, gore, thievery, and physics-defying cleavage. Immersion-centric players might argue that narcotics add to the gritty realism of many game worlds and aren't really different from other mind-and-body-altering substances like booze, but developers seem wary of wading into that territory. Star Wars Galaxies, for example, launched with canon-correct spice (complete with "downer" effects) but ended spice production with the NGE. And Lord of the Rings Online implemented Tolkien's famous pipeweed but has resisted bestowing beneficial effects on those who smoke it, probably for fear of encouraging "bad" behavior, triggering political drama, or jeopardizing its age rating. What do you think -- do narcotics belong in MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Motorola makes the budget-friendly XT531 official, will be available in China this month
The Domino name and its fancy "plus" didn't make the cut, but at least the phone itself did. Not long after the Motorola XT531 endured its obligatory photo session, the Android 2.3 device has been deemed worthy of an official press release announcing its upcoming availability. With it, all of the pertinent details came gushing out: it's powered by an 800MHz CPU (no specific chip was mentioned), 512MB of RAM, a 3.5-inch HVGA display, a 1540mAh battery for up to eight hours talk time, and it offers dual cameras (5 MP rear / VGA front). Dimensionally speaking, the handset is 11.95mm thick and weighs a smidgen above four ounces. Oh, and here's the kicker -- select parts of Asia will be able to choose between single-SIM and dual-SIM flavors. The XT531 will be available as the Fire XT in Europe and the Spice XT in Latin America -- not to be confused with the Fire and Spice -- sometime this fall. While our earlier images clearly showed the device clad in an all-white shell, there was zero mention of color choices. Disappointed? Allow us to recommend the age-old method of wishing upon a star. The full press release is after the break.
Spice Mobile's Popkorn handset touts built-in projector, 1080p unlikely
We're big fans of new kit splashing down close to home, but there's a certain intrigue attached to handsets hailing from faraway locales. So when a loyal reader tipped us off to Spice Mobile's M-9000 Popkorn, a candybar phone from India featuring a built-in projector, we understandably took notice. Originating from the land of saffron for 6,900 rupees (approximately $158), its showcase feature allows users to project broadcast television onto the wall -- not exactly an ideal TV replacement, but it'd do in a pinch. Additionally, designers integrated live and scheduled recording of FM radio for those who'd rather listen in. Conversely, the M-9000 is a woefully dated phone, held back in the ages of analog TV, GPRS and Edge networks. No specs were noted on the projector's resolution, though given an internal 2.4-inch display at 320 x 240, we speculate its splay is one only Mr. Blurrycam could appreciate. Much like India itself, the Popkorn is an apt representation of the past and future, held together as one. Perhaps that's why we feel such fond sentiment for this little guy -- check out Spice's entire portfolio at the source. [Thanks, Akash]
Motorola Spice is the Brazilian Android portrait slider of your mid-range dreams
Hey, remember that weirdo Motorola XT300 portrait slider we saw with hints of Droid branding back in August? It was just announced at CTIA (and released in Brazil) as the Spice. Apart from the form factor, it's basically a Flipout with a different hinge -- it's got Android 2.1 with Motoblur, a 528MHz processor, a 3.2-inch QVGA screen, Motorola's crazy "Backtrack" rear trackpad, and a 3.2 megapixel camera -- but it was apparently designed and built entirely in Brazil, so that's something. We're assuming AT&T passed on this one when it chose to release the Flipout, Flipside and Bravo instead, but damn -- can someone please take this form factor and put it together with a high-end Android spec sheet already? We have cash money.
AT&T's LG Prime and Pantech Ease in the wild?
If the Pursuit isn't up your alley, it looks like Pantech's got a slightly higher-end phone in store for you: the Ease. We know next to nothing about it, but it's clearly got a more spacious keyboard than its kid brother -- and the silver highlights are a little more businesslike than green and blue. From LG, we've got a phone called the Prime that looks as though it could be a keyboardless (and arguably better-looking) version of the Vu Plus. No dates or prices on these, but dummies are out and about, so it can't be long. See more in the gallery below. [Thanks, anonymous tipster] Update: We've been told by two independent sources that the Ease is actually geared toward the older set -- first we've really seen a full touchscreen phone do that -- and the Prime is destined for AT&T's prepaid GoPhone service with a 2 megapixel cam. Thanks, guys! %Gallery-95670%
Spice S940 brings out the student in all of us
Before you ask -- no, this candybar isn't specially equipped to help you cheat on tests, it's actually helpful for studying. Imagine that, right? The Spice S940 reportedly comes loaded with the ability to make / receive calls, take snapshots with its two megapixel camera, tune into FM radio, play back multimedia files and access an online portal that provides preparation for the CAT, IIT and a few other professional exams. Moreover, the "email2sms" feature beams your emails to you by way of text message, and the included "friend finder" is sure to go over well with the social networking fanatics. And hey, Rs 5,999 ($122) ain't bad for a digital study guide.
My bag of spice has everything nice
In each cooking daily you get a Small Spice Bag. The bag is one of the two ways you can pickup the essential Northern Spice, which is required for the major cooking recipes that are prevalent in Wrath*.The Small Spice Bag also has a certain chance to drop some other goods, including Old Spice, Baby Spice, and a recipe for a Delicious Chocolate Cake.The Old Spice, which is a reference to a brand of deodorant, makes you smell nice. The only result of it is a buff which lasts for five minutes and says "Smelling Great!"So you smell nice, congrats you stinking plate wearer.The Baby Spice is a fun buff you can apply to a target which shrinks the target by 50%.
India's Spice Mobile spices things up with X-1 gaming phone
Unlike the Bell X-1, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier, the Spice X-1 isn't going to break any speed records limping along with a quaint little GPRS chipset. After the initial bout of browsing withdrawal, though, the average user might be able to settle in, enjoy the phone's rather comprehensive gaming facilities, and forget about data connectivity altogether (that's not us, necessarily, but we imagine those people must exist somewhere). The phone ships with a dedicated gaming controller that can be snapped on and used when trying to blast your foes away on the standard numeric pad just isn't cutting it, and the touted surround sound and stereo Bluetooth should help give it some street cred, too. It can be had for 8,899 rupees (about $212), which isn't bad considering the feature set; just don't expect the bundled Opera Mobile to take you very far.[Via Unwired View]
Vmedia aside, Spice planning ultra-cheap phones, too
We'd personally spend the extra few bucks to pick up the MOTOFONE's e-ink display, but mad love to Spice for what they're trying to do here nonetheless. The Indian carrier announced a couple other handsets in addition to its crazy Vmedia disc-playing prototype at Mobile World Congress last week, both of which will retail for under $20. "The People's Phone" (which we hope is less painful than The People's Elbow) is about as simple as they come, forgoing a display altogether in an effort to really boil it down to the basics, while The Braille Phone appears to be virtually the same thing with braille simply added to the keys. It seems unlikely that the models will find their way too far outside India proper, though they sure would make interesting backup phones, wouldn't they?[Via textually.org]
Vmedia's cellphone optical disk system is probably not the next big thing
Seeing as cellphones are usually connected to mobile networks, we'd think the problem of content distribution would basically solve itself, but a company called Vmedia Research is at Mobile World Congress with a new type of optical disk designed just for phones. Using a blue laser, a 1GB, 32mm MiniDisc-esque Vmedia cartridge can hold a full DVD-res movie using H.264 compression, as well as limited special features. Vmedia's demoing the tech on an upcoming Spice GSM handset, which has a 2.8-inch screen and a PSP UMD-like door for inserting the disks. The system is going to debut in India and southeast Asia with 40 Bollywood films available at launch for just $5 each, but Vmedia and Spice say they've got 1,000 more content deals in the works. No plans have been announced for the rest of the world as of yet, but we're not holding our breath. Read - Vmedia press release Read - Spice Movie Phone
Japanese hardware sales, Feb. 12 - Feb. 18: Cool stuff edition
Perhaps naught ever changes in the land of the rising sun, but this week felt especially mired in consistency. Christmas-colored arrows would tell you otherwise, but in fact the only changes in rank were the Game Boy Micro and the GBA SP swapping out the number seven and eight slots, respectively.So, what to do without our usual fountain of inspiration from which to draw? Part of our jobs include scouring the internet for days, nay, weeks straight, searching far and wide for things to make you, our readers, feel cool and well-informed. In our trek across digital lands we find many awesome things that may not relate to the Wii directly, and yet, we wished we could share them with you regardless. Now's our chance! You may have seen these three web-gems before, but for those who haven't, we do hope you enjoy. Now click that "Continue reading" link. Do it. - DS Lite: 136,846 64,331 (31.98%)- Wii: 63,618 14,932 (19.01%) - PSP: 34,505 2,330 (7.24%) - PS3: 20,676 2,755 (11.76%) - PS2: 16,192 159 (0.99%) - Xbox 360: 5,210 399 (8.29%) - Game Boy Micro: 953 69 (7.81%) - GBA SP: 843 137 (13.98%) - Gamecube: 347 36 (9.40%) - DS Phat: 153 32 (26.45%) - GBA: 40 4 (11.11%)[Source: Media Create]
