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App Store locked down for Thanksgiving, Christmas holidays
Apple is apparently going to give the App Store approval staff some time off over the holidays. But don't worry, you'll still be able to shop. It's just that developers who are rushing to get holiday-themed apps into the App Store will need to make sure that they get their content approved before the holidays arrive. According to Macgasm, the content lockdown has occurred at Christmas in the past. This will be the first year that Apple is throwing the Thanksgiving holiday in late November into the mix as well, ensuring that the App Store folks can get their fill of the U.S. Thanksgiving feast and watch lots of college and pro football. Developers won't be able to make changes or submit new apps during the lockdown periods through iTunes Connect, the portal that devs use to coordinate app entries in the store. There will also be a freeze in the Top App listings during each of the holidays, so developers might want to make sure that they're at the top of the heap before taking a short vacation -- they'll get a few more days of App Store listing love that way. Developers are also reminded to pre-schedule any price changes during the freeze, as they won't be able to adjust pricing for special sales during the lockdown.
Sony thanks 440,000 customers for giving it money during Black Friday week
Just a few hours after Nintendo, Sony has prepared a Black Friday sales statement of its own. SCEA's Patrick Seybold wrote in a press release: "PlayStation 3 demand was at an all time high with the system selling more than 440,000 units for the week ending 11/29/09." While shy of Wii's numbers, the figure is quite impressive, considering that's more than the number of systems sold in the entire month of October -- the same month that the PS3-exclusive Uncharted 2 came out. Retailers offered a number of PS3 bundles during the holiday weekend, adding a number of free games and movies to the system's standard $299 price tag. That, coupled with an ad campaign that totally doesn't creep us out, certainly helped Sony's fortunes this year.
It came from the Blog: We partied like pilgrims
Last Wednesday night, It came from the Blog got together to Party like Pilgrims. We got some Pilgrim's Bounty achievements and won some loot. Unfortunately, the Guild Roster gets buggy when there are more than 500 members. So I don't know exactly how many showed up, but I estimate it at around 240 over the course of the event. Blog Overlords Adam Holisky, Michael Gray, Matt Low and Kelly Aarons were there. Adam held a trivia quiz and gave out some loot codes to speedy contestants. And, of course, I was there, but I am the brood Blog Mother. We had a great time and really enjoyed running around with everyone. And of course, we took pictures. We have more events planned soon. Expect a Battleground Bonanza, a Hogger/Faire excursion and some Feast of Winter Veil fun all in December. We hope you'll join us! %Gallery-79024%
Is your iPhone your wingman for Black Friday?
Happy Turkey Hangover Day -- or, as it's otherwise known, shopping chaos day 2009. As Mike S. noted earlier, Business Week is calling this season "mobile shopping's first Christmas," and indeed there are plenty of shopper-assist apps in the App Store to help you plot, plan and navigate your gift-grabbing course: Apple's collection of essential Black Friday apps The full suite of apps in the store tagged 'Black Friday' ReadWriteWeb's shopper hints and app list CNET's list of Black Friday apps The BF app from our deal partners at dealnews [iTunes link] The $2.99 MallMaps [iTunes link], which has been featured in scores of breathless news reports and is now the #1 reference app in the US store Meanwhile, the App Store itself isn't immune to sales fever: plenty of games and other apps have reduced or free prices for the weekend. There are also plenty of discounts on Mac apps as well. What we'd like to know is this: Did any of this advanced technology improve your experience out in the field today? Did you use Twitter to share bargains or Loopt to track your buddies down? Did MMS give you the power to send pictures of presents to your spouse, or did RedLaser [iTunes link] help you find a better price at the next destination? Give us the scoop in the comments below; we'll highlight the most intriguing shopping stories in future posts. Photo via Flickr / plain_jane53177 http://www.flickr.com/photos/10558398@N02/ / CC BY-ND 2.0
The Daily Grind: Do you like holiday events?
We've only been done with Halloween for about a month, and we just finished Thanksgiving. There's still some other holiday coming up this year, followed by New Year's Day, followed by Valentine's Day, and so on and so forth. And all of these holidays are usually accompanied by events in the middle of your game of choice -- usually with a different name or a slightly different backstory, but with the ultimate effect of more holiday experience being shoved directly into your retinas. On the one hand, this is fun. It gives you a chance to break up the flow of the year a bit better within the game, it lets everyone kick back and relax a little more, and the best events give every player something new to do for a little while. On the other hand, they can distract from the game's actual focus, the rewards can sometimes be disproportionate, and for some people they get enough holiday coverage anyway. Work retail around Christmas, for instance, and you don't want more Christmas decorations in your favorite MMO. (You might want more Hanukkah, but that's a different discussion.) Today we ask: do you like having holiday events in your games of choice? If so, what are your favorite sorts and best examples? If not, what's your personal reason?
Massively's Black Friday MMO sales guide
The holidays are officially here (if you're a retail chain, then they've been here for about a month) and so it's time to start looking for deals to give to either your MMO-playing loved ones or, well, yourself! Shopping can be a pretty big hassle, especially if you're not accustomed to hunting for the best deals. So, we've gone and outlined the season's new releases, as well as some places you can hope to find sales in the coming weeks.
Cook that turkey, drink that wine! Five cooking apps for Thanksgiving
Are you ready for the Thanksgiving Day feast tomorrow? If you're a typical American, the day will go something like this -- wake up, watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, watch some football, eat some snacks, cook and eat a huge feast, watch some more football while dozing, eat some dessert, take some Maalox, and go to bed with visions of Black Friday in your mind. To help with the cooking chores, we offer the following five apps to make your turkey day a bit less hectic and a lot more fun. #1 -- iCooking American Celebrations While this app features only 56 recipes, many of which are for other American holidays, the recipes that are included are the classic ones you always wanted to steal from Grandma. iCooking American Celebrations [US$0.99, iTunes Link] is a handy app for iPhone or iPod touch to help you make a memorable feast. #2 -- Thanksgiving Dinner Do you just need an app that will give you recipes for the classic Thanksgiving dinner? The aptly-named Thanksgiving Dinner [US$0.99, iTunes Link] has basic recipes for turkey, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, cranberry sauce, an orange dessert, and apple crumb pie. If it's your first time cooking the feast for an extended family, you'll love these features: an overall schedule telling you when to start prepping the food and a shopping list.
Thanksgiving surprise: Four free days in Champions Online
This ain't no ordinary free weekend. Cryptic is offering a full four days worth of free time in Champions Online starting Thanksgiving day at 10am PST -- or Thursday, November 26th to the American holiday challenged. The free time will go on until the following Monday and end at precisely 10am PST. The timing isn't too surprising, as returning players will be able to check out the recent Nemesis Confrontation update that went live just yesterday. Hopefully things go much more smoothly than the last time there was a free weekend. Although, we're curious as to who'll be watching the servers on Thursday. We expect a vast majority of people to be lined with food and edging on the precipice of nap time. Maybe Cryptic is employing robots or Canadians to run their servers for a day. Unless... unless they're the same thing...
SOE offering a 25% boost in Station Cash this week
If you play EverQuest, EverQuest II or Free Realms and happen upon a Station Cash card this week, you may want to considering picking one or two up. Sony Online Entertainment will be giving players with accounts in good standing a 25% boost to any Station Cash card they redeem between Monday, November 23 (after 10:00am PST) and Sunday, November 29th (before 10:00pm PST). A pretty good offer if we do say so ourselves. In fact, we kind of wish we knew that for our second episode ReSubbed this week, as we could've mentioned it during our jaunty exploration of EverQuest's trial zone. Oh well, at least you know now!
How to get the most out of in-flight Wi-Fi
Over the weekend, I discovered that my annual flight from Phoenix to Alabama (via Atlanta) had in-flight Wi-Fi. Best of all? It happened to be free, thanks to eBay jumping in on the free holiday Wi-Fi bandwagon. The promotion was already active on the flight I took from Phoenix to Atlanta. If you're traveling for Thanksgiving or Christmas, here's some things to consider about utilizing this service with your MacBook, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air. Is it worth it? It all depends. It was very nice being able to talk with my fiancé (who, on his part used FlightStats.com to inform me of where I was at) during the flight. I'm no fan of flying, and when the turbulence got bad, it was a nice distraction. However, I did notice I got a slight motion-induced headache and had to take a break. If the seat in front of you is reclined to the point where your computer is rammed into your chest, the person in the seat next to you is taking up half of yours with their elbows, or if you're inclined to motion sickness, this may not be for you. Still, a free promotion is the perfect time to give the service a try. Normally, this service can cost anywhere from $6-15 for a flight. Gogo's pricing structure is $5.95 for a flight less than 90 minutes, $9.95 for a flight between 90 minutes and three hours, $12.95 for one more than three hours or a daily pass on a single airline. If you're just using your iPhone, it's $5.95 for a flight less than 90 minutes and $7.95 for one longer than that. Read on for tips on maximizing your battery life in flight.
Gobble up this LittleBigPlanet Turkey costume before it's gone
Perhaps you've been playing an online session of LittleBigPlanet and seen a Sackboy (or Sackgirl) with his (or her) head stuck inside of a turkey. You're probably curious as to how this bold fashion statement came to pass. Were they searching for a lost meat thermometer? Had they been the victim of a cruel practical joke? Were they afflicted with the rare, but deadly Meleagris Oblongatus virus? As it turns out, the real source of these turkeyheaded individuals isn't really that scintillating. Media Molecule handed them out free of charge last Thanksgiving -- and, according to a recent post on PlayStation.Blog, the offer stands this year as well. Hop onto LBP to get your fowl chapeau from the LittleBigStore, but act quick -- it'll only be available for "a limited time."
Apple announces one-day shopping event on November 27th
As usual for this time of year, Apple has announced a special one-day sale on November 27th, which is Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). The page on Apple's online store reads: "Come back to the Apple Online Store the day after Thanksgiving for a special one-day-only holiday shopping event. You'll find dozens of great iPod, iPhone, and Mac gift ideas - all with free shipping. Mark your calendar now. And until then, start your research by browsing the Apple Online Store to find iPod, iPhone, and Mac gifts for everyone on your list." There's no details on what's exactly going to be on sale, and this doesn't look like the questionable leaked email we saw last week stating Apple's Black Friday discounts. Apple has in the past not posted the actual sale prices until early Friday. We'll let you know when we find out what's on sale and what those discounts are. What are your purchase plans? Let us know by leaving a comment! [via Mashable]
Free Champions Online expansion on Nov. 24, plus free-to-play Thanksgiving weekend
Once again, Cryptic Studios is giving you a great excuse not to spend time with friends and family over a holiday weekend. The developer's superheroic MMO, Champions Online, will be free-to-play from November 26–30 as a promotion for the game's second free content expansion since its launch in September. The free update, which is titled Nemesis Confrontation and launches November 24, will include new costumes and perks, and tasks players with escaping from a hostile intergalactic prison -- a mission made much more difficult by the facility's unfriendly inhabitants, seen above. You'll also face off against the Shadow Destroyer (the party responsible for your hero's unrequested detention) and even your user-generated Nemesis. Sounds like a pretty dangerous calling -- but nowhere near as perilous as the crushing throng of Black Friday shoppers that awaits you at your local mall. %Gallery-78556% [Via Big Download]
Turkeys to invade PlayStation Home this week
It's rare we quote someone extensively for a post, but we thought this update from PlayStation Home's Locust_Star speaks for itself: "In celebration of the impending Turkey Day, users will approach the giant stone turkey in Central Plaza and, of course, pledge their allegiance to the almighty Meleagris Gallopavo by stating 'Gobble gobble' and/or other assorted turkey-isms ... You will be given a chance to chase a bunch of wily turkeys around Central Plaza. If you can manage to catch them all, you will unlock some truly hilarious rewards that are sure to make you an object of envy amongst your peers." Yeah, the PS3 really can do everything.
Runes of Magic cracks open the Lair of the Demon Dragon
What's more threatening to the world of Taborea than a dragon? A demon dragon, obviously! Duh! The only thing more threatening than that would be a emo teen-vampire dragon, but it's good that the team at Runewaker didn't go that far. (Or did they?)This Thursday, the wrath of the demon dragon will be unleashed upon all high level players in patch 2.1.3. The dungeon contained in Aotulia Volcano is the new hardest 12 man raid in the game -- a worthy challenge to players at the top of their endgame.Even if you're not super high level, the patch will also be introducing a cleaned up crafting system with a new, intuitive UI, and the special "Autumn Harvest" festival. Players will be able to stuff their faces at banquet tables scattered across the land in addition to participating in special holiday themed daily quests. So don't be afraid to jump in and enjoy the new patch this Thursday!
5 apps for Thanksgiving (and not a turkey in the bunch!)
Here in the USA we're preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving. The typical celebration includes a turkey dinner, family and football on television (and perhaps a drunken uncle or two). Before you set up the folding card table for the kids, check out these iPhone/iPod touch apps meant to make the day more enjoyable. Thanksgiving Jokes Serving the "perfect" dinner while dealing with annoying relatives is stressful, so cut the tension with corny jokes, courtesy of Thanksgiving Jokes [iTunes link]. This free app is based on Dustin Kirk's Stacks platform, which puts flash cards on your iPhone or iPod touch. There's a large variety of topics available from math to trivia: nearly 13,000 in total. Dustin breaks from academia with Thanksgiving Jokes and focuses on groan-inducing one-liners. And you thought the turkey was dry. Turkey Recipes In my day, recipes were taped to cabinet doors. Today there's cooking software and even a dedicated television network. iPhone users can download Turkey Recipes [iTunes link] for $0.99 and pick from 27 recipes. Once you've selected the one you like (or added your own), you're a click away from generating a shopping list. Back in the kitchen, flick through the easy-to-read instructions (just wipe your hands first) and compare your finished product to the included photo. Just don't be too hard on yourself.
Ride a turkey in Fiesta and help feed the homeless in America
We here at Massively always appreciate it when games give back to the community, and the folks over at Fiesta seem to follow our line of thought. In celebration of Thanksgiving, they've released the new Thomas the Turkey mount for players to grab from the item shop.Thomas is a special beast, however, as 100% of his proceeds until November 30th will go towards Feeding America, a charity that works with local food banks to provide food to the homeless and needy. After the 30th, Thomas will stick around in the Fiesta store as a standard mount.Thomas is currently priced at around $6.80, but it's good to know that the money will be going to a good cause. So don't dilly dally, go out and purchase your turkey before the 30th to make sure you help the homeless and get a sweet ride while doing it.
Atlantica Online celebrates its one year US anniversary
It's been one whole successful year for Atlantica Online in the US, and Ndoors Interactive is ready to celebrate with special bonuses and in-game events throughout this November. The first of many celebratory specials offers players a 200% experience boost, something sure to make everybody pretty happy. Then, there's the weekend in-game events, followed by new in-game items, a special Thanksgiving event, a fan art contest and we're guessing a lot more. So, to recap: oodles of extra experience and rare new items, along with fun holiday and anniversary distractions. Oh, right and even a fan art contest for the creatively inclined types. Yep, seems like a particularly awesome month for Atlantica Online players. In fact, for more deets from Ndoors themselves, check out the official word on all the in-game events and such after the break.
Speculating at the patch 3.3 release date
All right. Nethaera says that Blizzard can't actually tell us the patch release date before it's out, because they don't want to be wrong. Fortunately, sites like ours don't have any such compunctions, so we're free to speculate on when we might finally see this patch on the live realms. Note that I said speculate -- this is not a guarantee, and we have no secret knowledge save lots and lots of experience at watching Blizzard create, test and release content. Don't use any dates we mention here to plan any vacations from work or family events -- as anyone who's ever tried to log in and do anything significant on patch day will tell you, you're going to be disappointed. And we don't want the patch to come early anyway, so Blizzard can delay as much as they want to. Anyone who complains otherwise has to go into the Octagon with Rossi. That said, testing is moving relatively smoothly on the PTRs, and lots of the content seems like it's pretty well put together. We aren't nearly done with testing yet, though -- we haven't seen most of the Icecrown raid, and we're still waiting on Halls of Reflection, the 5-man where we'll face Arthas. Gear still needs to go into the game and be tuned. There are around 15 different bosses and encounters in Icecrown (that we know of), and if Blizzard continues on the schedule of testing one or two per week, we're looking at six to eight more weeks of testing for just that content. The PTR itself went up just under a month ago, and it seems that we've got at least a month or, likely, more of testing and updating to be done.
The Queue: Wherein Alex renames himself Nostradamus
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.After a year of writing this thing, I've run out of quirky ways to introduce this thing that don't reek of veiled desperation. So screw the veil. Along with your question in today's edition of The Queue, I want you to write an introduction for the next edition of this column that I write, which will be the day after tomorrow. I will pick the best of the bunch to use. Keep it clean!crusherkid asked..."I've read reports that because of the servers going down in China that World of Warcraft has dropped down to only 5 million subscribers. Is that correct?"
