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HTC wants some help naming a phone, turns to Facebook users
HTC is known for being one of the more prolific codenamers in the entire wireless industry, going all the way back to the early days with unforgettable devices like the Canary and Blue Angel, but let's be honest: thinking up awesome names for all these phones when you're pumping out dozens of models a year gets tricky after a while. The English language is only so big, right? On that note, HTC has turned to its Facebook followers to come up with a name for "something new" that it's got cooking in the labs right now, and the choices are "Jovi," "Zeal," "Wildfire," and "Festi." Of course, we think that the nature of the device plays a big role in our choice (Jovi would be a good name for a washed-up phone with last year's specs, for instance), but the company isn't revealing an iota of detail about it, so we've gotta do this blind.
Apple rejecting apps with "Pad" in the title
Apple is extremely protective of its trademarks, and has begun rejecting App Store submissions with "Pad" in the main title. 9to5 Mac notes that Jesse Waites, the developer behind ContactPad, has recently had an update for his app rejected because of its name (note that ContactPad is currently available; it's the update that was rejected). Apple has established a policy meant to eliminate confusion over which products were actually produced by Apple. Among the criteria is "...You may use Apple, iPad or any other word mark provided that...the Apple word mark is not part of the product name." True, "Pad" isn't "iPad," but it's close enough in Apple's opinion. This isn't the first time we've seen Apple request such a change. Website iLounge was previously named iPodLounge, and several years ago the makers of the iPed iPod stand were asked to reconsider their device's name (in no uncertain terms). More recently, the Little App Factory were told to change the name of iPodRip; a fix that Steve Jobs suggested was "Not that big of a deal."
Apple files for 'Magic Trackpad' trademark
Apple sure likes that word 'magic' lately. We already have the Magic Mouse, and soon we may have a 'Magic Trackpad'. That's the word from the Patently Apple website that keeps an eye on these sometimes mysterious Apple filings. Apple wants to have the rights to 'Magic Trackpad', and wants to make sure no one else can can get their sweaty little hands on it. No one knows exactly what this thing is for, or where it might be used. It could be for the new iPad, or something for the upcoming laptop refresh. It could well be an extension of the work Apple has done on multitouch, or something completely different. Apple has filed under International Classification 009 which includes touchscreen and trackpad tech, so it's possible that they're just covering their bases on their current products, and nailing down a marketing name in advance. Frankly, we're not quite sure what else Apple's trackpads can do to be any more magic -- you've already got the gestures, the multitouch, and vast application support. What's next -- a genie that appears when you swipe it just right?
2K Boston is bringing back Irrational Games name, legacy
[Image credit: Game Informer] Halo: Reach isn't the only story that you'll find in next month's Game Informer -- the magazine's blog has also revealed that the developer known for the past two years as 2K Boston will be returning to its roots as Irrational Games. The change isn't unexpected, as we've seen hints of the old identity coming back to the spotlight for a while. But apparently the company is going full force with the "renewed commitment" to the legacy: it'll be kicking off a new website soon (in about three days and 16 hours as of this writing, according to the countdown now running on IrrationalGames.com) that will contain lots of community features and information about Irrational's past -- including fan favorites like System Shock 2 and Freedom Force, in addition to 2K Boston's BioShock and future titles. Meanwhile, the company has a new logo -- spiffy! -- and the next Game Informer will have more information about the studios' history and why it made the choice to turn back the clock on its identity. We look forward to reading all about it.
'iGuide' another rumored tablet/service name from Apple
"iSlate" isn't the only less-than-exciting name that Apple may be considering for their rumored upcoming tablet release. MacRumors has uncovered another possible trademarked name for the new device: iGuide. They found what appears to be a shell company created by Apple a while back (December 2007, around the same time that the iSlate trademark was filed) designed to trademark the name "iGuide" for a new device or service. The purpose of said service? To browse, transmit and play many types of multimedia content, including videos, audio, movies, photos, and even electronic publications like books, magazines, and blogs. Obviously, this is a pretty vague stab in the dark, but paired with recent rumors that the new tablet will include some Kindle or Nook-style reader functionality, iGuide could certainly be a delivery service for the new device, sort of an iTunes but for all kinds of media, designed to deliver content directly to the reader. We're just giving out ideas here -- as I said yesterday, this thing isn't real until it is. But the possibilities are very interesting for sure. [If you want to see more speculation and prognostication around the tablet in convenient video format, check out Mike R.'s appearance on Fox Business News earlier today.]
Phat Loot Phriday: Mystifying Charm
Here's a spooky looking offhand for current endgame casters. If you have an item you'd like to see here next week, shout it out in the comments below, please. Name: Mystifying Charm (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory) Type: Epic Offhand Damage/Speed: N/A Attributes: +65 Stamina, +65 Intellect, +57 Spirit Improves crit strike rating by 57 and spell power by 100. %Gallery-33600%
The pros and cons of Battle.net
Well it's finally happened -- as of next month, you'll be required to have a Battle.net login to get into the game, so you might as well head over and merge your account up right now. It's not like we have a choice in the matter any more, but that doesn't mean lots of players still have apprehensions about the process. Naissa puts some of the concerns together clearly over on her blog -- putting all of her accounts under one username scares her, and that's a legit point. Not only can Blizzard presumably cut access to all of their games for just one (or even one false positive) ToS violation, but presumably, one hacker could now gain access to all of your Blizzard games with one hack. The online profile is another concern -- Bungie already has something like this running with Halo, and from my online profile, you can see clearly just how bad I am. With the Armory, there's a level of anonymity (you can't see your account name, just character names), but if Blizzard starts posting profiles under account names -- or even worse, "Real IDs," which are apparently real names -- that's one more layer of separation lost. Surely, they'll have to have a way to opt out of that.Of course, the changeover isn't all bad.
Improving the character selection screen
I really like this post over at Mend Pet -- after five years in a game's life, no part of the WoW interface should be remiss from getting the occasional update, and they mention possibly the only part of the game (even the login screen's been updated quite a few times) that's been the same since day one, the character selection screen. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with it, as you can choose your character and get into the game. But everything can be better, no?
Clearwire branding true 4G WiMAX rollouts 'CLEAR,' upgrading pre-WiMAX areas nationwide
Clearwire's far too young of a company to be dealing with a mid-life crisis, but just a year or so after it really began rolling out its Clear WiMAX services in select portions of America, it appears that the outfit is changing names. Confusingly enough, the company (currently Clearwire) will be renaming itself as the service (currently Clear), leaving us to wonder what exactly CLEAR (the rebranded company) will call its WiMAX offerings. There's no indication on the company's website as to when it plans to make the rebranding official, but a customer in Charlotte, North Carolina has informed us that the change is already underway in the Queen City. According to him, his equipment was recently swapped out, with the new modem boasting a Motorola logo and a "CLEAR" logo instead of the "Clearwire" emblem as before. Interestingly, he also claims that his download speed received a (gratis) bump from 1.6Mbps to 5Mbps, which resulted in a "huge improvement in speed." So, any other users out there getting their modems swapped out? Call us crazy, but we're guessing it's just a matter of time.[Thanks, Rick]Update: Clearwire pinged us with a few clarifications here. Ready? Good. Clearwire, as a company, is not changing its name. So far as the SEC knows, the corporate entity will remain "Clearwire." The new "CLEAR" branding is a push to market its true 4G WiMAX services (as opposed to "pre-WiMAX service"), which are rolling out to over 40 existing Clearwire markets around the country. Seems that explains the speed boost Mr. Rick experienced, huh?%Gallery-73894%
TiVo survey hints at new name, direction for Series4 boxes
We don't know exactly what the next generation of TiVo hardware will be like, but if these survey screenshots are to be believed, we have an idea what they might be called. EHD reader Justin tipped us off to a recent online survey road testing new names like TiVo eVO, TiVO OmniBox, TiVo Series4 and TiVo OnDemand for new hardware with the TiVo features we've come to know and love plus video on-demand access. Squaring off against competition like the Roku player and Xbox 360, peep the gallery and see how these roll off the tongue, or suggest innovation and environmental friendliness.
Breakfast Topic: What's the best pun name you've ever seen?
We've all seen some Alliance kiddie named "ikillhoarde" or a Warlock named "ifearyoudie." After all, what Horde wouldn't run for cover from a Hunter who's named after his very death? And woe is the person who actually thinks he can get away from a Warlock's fear. Phear the lock, baby.Add titles into the mix. "Doora the Explorer" is probably my favorite of all time. Every time I see someone named that I yell out "Swiper, No Swiping!" Of course insert the obligatory NSFW Kevin Smith reference here.Another favorite of mine that I've seen is "Highlander the Immortal."What's the best pun name that you've encountered in the game? Ever thought about renaming your character to make yourself pun-famous?
Breakfast Topic: Should guilds police member names?
Vinna asked in the comments to yesterday's Breakfast Topic, "How do you feel when a guildmate makes a character with a questionable name, i.e. offensive/borderline offensive?" After all, your name appears above your guild name, so should guilds be policing their members' alt names?We already know that unless someone reports a name, it doesn't get changed. We also know that there are some extremely offensive names out there. So, if you are in a guild you want to stay in and someone makes an alt with a name that offends you what should you do, if anything?
Breakfast Topic: What's in a name?
Much like yesterday's Breakfast Topic, this is another story of an identity crisis. I recently discovered the wonders of being a Mage and she has replaced my Druid as my main. I changed the first letter of a favorite name, Kira, into something more Blood Elf looking (to my way of thinking): Qira. It's pretty and simple.Then one day I Googled it. It's the name of a village that some people consider to have been ethnically cleansed [Edited to be more neutral--I had such a kneejerk reaction that I didn't even research it]. I immediately paid to change the name without even spending the time to come up with a good substitute. Robiness is a fun name for an It came from the Blog character, but do I really want it for my new main?If I had slept on it, rather than changing my name instantly, I may not have changed it. After all, it wasn't my intention to commemorate anything like that. And you can't change it again for 30 days. So now what? Do I keep the name Robiness or do I change it again in a week or so when I am able? Have any of you gone through something similar?
Blizzard execs haven't played Wrath as yet
Last night was generally a time for merriment and revelry, as many World of Warcraft players talked in lines around the world about just what they were going to do when they first got into game. Would it be the frozen tundra of Northrend, with new races and achievements by the score? Or would they instead be starting a new character and heading for Arthas' floating Necropolis? Surprisingly, among two of the people discussing just what they'd be doing in the strange new lands that Blizzard built were two of Blizzard's very own co-founders; Mike Morhaime, Blizzard's CEO, and Frank Pearce, Blizzard's Executive VP of Product Development. MTV's Multiplayer blog had a launch-night chat with with both Morhaime and Pearce, and discovered neither one of them has really played through the Wrath content as yet. As if that weren't strange enough, it would appear that both men really haven't thought about rolling a Death Knight - or for that matter, what they'd name theirs if they do. We know people who weren't in beta that have planned talent trees, gear progression and more for their Death Knights, so drawing a blank on a good name seems a bit strange to us. Of course, Pearce's reasoning for not going Death Knight is one many World of Warcraft players can likely relate to; he doesn't want to get left behind on his main by his guild, as he was when Burning Crusade launched. But Morhaime, well, we'll have to cut him slack for being the CEO of a company making oodles of money and in heavy development and marketing cycles between Wrath, StarCraft II and Diablo III. Our suggestion would be to take a few well-deserved days off and enjoy some gaming; we hear there's this really popular new MMO expansion just came out that they might enjoy.
Reserve your Death Knight name right now
Cameo of Dethecus has a good idea -- if there's a specific name for your Death Knight that you want, probably best to grab it right now. You can create a character with the name on your server right now, and then when Wrath comes out next week, delete the placeholder character and the name should be freed up for your DK.During the beta, I called my Death Knight Dingbat, only because it was the first thing that jumped to mind. But it was a little silly to hear the great knights of the Scourge ordering me around as Dingbat, so I'll probably go with something a little more threatening for the actual release: Marton? Erathor? Killahdk?Whatever it is, now's probably a good time to check and make sure your name is free and get a toon in place before someone else takes it. And please: spare us from the "Darth" names. Nobody, including Arthas, wants those.
SciFi channel considering name change to Beyond
Given that the SciFi channel has deviated from showing only, um, science fiction, we suppose a name change may be in order after all. Based on a recent survey about the network, it clearly states that it's considering changing its name to "Beyond." The survey then asks how the respondent would view the change if it were made, specifically asking how we think the channel would change if the name changed. Is that to mean the content would change from its current slate, or are we just reading too much into it?[Thanks, Buttabean]
'Wii' before Wii
It's been well over two years since Nintendo unveiled its "revolutionary" console name (2 years, 3 months and 17 days to be precise). But, much like truthiness, it'd be silly to think it had been the first time the term had been used. Just ask Wii Yatani, a 26-year old New Yorker who experienced all the oh-so clever urine puns decades before the House of Mario. MTV's Stephen Totilo has a profile on Yatani and how the waggle-inducing name has changed his name's perspective. Additionally, according to Totilo, there were over 1900 pre-Nintendo Wii references in the newspaper and magazine database Nexis. From a Singaporean record-setting stair climber to a Papa New Guinea lieutenant, Wii has traveled the globe. And although Nintendo hasn't attributed an exact definition, Yatani's Wii is derived from two Kanji characters meaning "universe" and "willpower."
Man named Wii shares his tale
Even though MTV's story about New Yorker Wii Yatani will no doubt illicit numerous "lol, slow news day?" replies from hilarious internet japesters, we found it to be quite novel.Judging by his interview, Wii endured the same two problems that originally faced Nintendo's console when it was renamed: either people didn't know how to pronounce his name correctly, or they concocted the kind of puns about urine that should carry the death penalty (we're deadly serious).In the end, though, it all worked out. Nintendo coincidentally named its awesome console after Yatani, who promptly offered to become a spokesperson for the company (an offer that was declined), and who now has to endure a raft of new jokes from his friends. Jokes such as: "Oh, Wii, are you going to go home to play with yourself?"You probably had to be there.[Via Digg]
MHD to be renamed Palladia HD, confuse HD viewers everywhere
As we've seen with Discovery's Planet Green, and -- to a lesser extent, History HD, Food HD and SPEED HD -- these high-def channels prefer to change up (or shorten, at least) their names every now and then. The latest to take on a new identity is MTV Networks' MHD, which is apparently being redubbed Palladia HD in DISH Network / TWC's EPG. We've all ideas the name change will filter down to all carriers in short order, but we're just letting you know to not get overly excited upon seeing it emerge in your channel lineup. Sadly, you actually haven't gained another channel -- it's just that the one with the loudest commercials has been renamed.[Image courtesy of Photobucket]
Gaia Online's MMO is actually called zOMG! (and it's in beta now)
The closed beta test of Gaia Online's much-anticipated MMO has officially begun. Here's the kicker: it has a name! And that name is zOMG!. No, really. The name of the MMO is actually zOMG!. Previously, it was called Gaia Battle. That was rather generic, so this is probably a step up. The name was chosen out of hundreds of submissions from Gaia regulars. Said Senior Producer Dave Georgeson to Wired: "it captures the spirit of our users." Those users are mostly teens. Until now, Gaia Online has simply been a casual games portal and forum community. zOMG! is an MMO built on that foundation.If you're not familiar with Gaia Battle -- err, we mean zOMG! -- it's a browser-based game that will run on any computer that plays nice with Flash. Gameplay involves combat -- which centers around upgradable magic ring items -- and minigames. Social networking type stuff is laced in as well.%Gallery-27139%
