themes
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Mass Effect's Pinnacle Station DLC now a premium theme, still unannounced [update]
Update: Reader Codemonkey76 points out that the listing is now on the US Xbox.com page right here. Interesting!So, at this point, one has to wonder if we're looking at a guerrilla marketing campaign. Not only have achievements popped up for Mass Effect DLC "Pinnacle Station," not only has the Swiss Xbox.com priced the thing, but now a Pinnacle Station theme has actually shown up on Xbox Live. ... Oh, didn't we mention? It's still unannounced. While you wait for someone to actually confirm its existence, check out the gallery below and see if you're able to extrapolate any hints about the content from the images we captured. [Thanks, TheDarkWayne] %Gallery-70843%
E3 2009: Bill Roper on character themes and customization in Champions Online
The superhero MMO genre has been ruled by one game and one game alone for the past five years: City of Heroes. NCsoft's title being quite literally the only game in town for superhero fans is about to change, with competitors like DC Universe Online and Champions Online on the way. We have a good idea of what to expect with DCUO given the recognizable characters the game incorporates, but what of Champions Online which is based upon the Champions pen and paper RPG?We've wondered what Cryptic Studios will do to differentiate Champions Online from the competition; Massively had a chance to sit down with Bill Roper, the game's executive producer, to discuss that question at E3 2009.%Gallery-17946%
Website previews premium Xbox themes
Earlier this year, we reported on NXEThemes.com, which showed off previews of various premium (read: paid) themes for the Xbox 360. Alas, it appears that NXE Themes has gone kaput, so what's a frugal, design-conscious gamer to do? Easy, just head over to Theme Xbox.The website has YouTube previews of premium NXE themes, allowing you to check out every facet of a given theme before plunking down your hard-earned Microsoft Points. Granted, the website could use some tweaking -- it's currently just a forum -- but it's definitely better than wasting money on a bad theme. Finally, you can stop agonizing over whether or not to pick up that Sonic Unleashed theme.
BlackBerry Pip-Boy theme: a post-apocalyptic nightmare world in the palm of your hand
Look, there's really nothing special going on here -- it's just a theme for BlackBerry devices. A totally, totally awesome theme for BlackBerry devices. So awesome, in fact, that it makes our corporate-issued / controlled phone seem somehow cool again. What are you waiting for? Go get it. [Via Gizmodo] Update: Sadly, it seems the theme has been removed at Bethesda's request -- because, you know, this is obviously bad PR for the Fallout series... or something. Thanks, Behzad!
More designer WinMo 6.5 themes get pictured
Not into that Mizrahi theme that Microsoft showed off for Windows Mobile 6.5 a few days ago? No worries -- there are others in the pipeline, too, and odds are you'll be able to find something you like in here (either that, or your tastes are badly misaligned with the world's designerati, apparently). istartedsomething reports that Microsoft has roped in Ron Arad, Vera Wang, Rock and Republic, and Diane von Furstenberg among others to beef up WinMo's fashion cred, and judging from the leaked wallpapers, they're moving in the right direction. 'Course, no number of pretty backgrounds can counter an aging kernel, but let's take this thing one step at a time, shall we? [Via wmpoweruser.com]
Microsoft announces Windows Marketplace partners, tweaked policies, designer WinMo 6.5 themes
Details are starting to come into focus on some of the finer points of Windows Mobile 6.5's launch later this year after February's announcement at MWC, and if you had to boil the news down to just two words, they'd be "pretty" and "support." As "pretty" goes, it's been announced that Microsoft has partnered up with Design Museum London and the Council of Fashion Designers of America to offer designer themes for 6.5-based devices -- colors, wallpaper, and the like -- with the first designs coming from fashion dude Isaac Mizrahi. If that's not good enough for ya, the company will be releasing a Theme Generator later this year that'll let you customize colors of UI elements on your device, pair it up with wallpaper culled from your own photo collection, and send the batch straight to your phone. Over to the "support" front, over 25 companies will be announcing their full support for the Windows Marketplace at CTIA this week, including EA Mobile, Facebook (pictured), Gameloft, MySpace, Namco, Pandora, and Sling Media. To help improve the Marketplace's public image, Microsoft is tweaking some policies, too: developers will now be able to issue unlimited updates to their apps free of charge, and users will have up to 24 hours to "return" apps they don't like (very cool). Notably, Facebook's new app will be available in April, offering direct video uploads straight to your wall if you're into that sort of thing (you know who you are). Finally, Microsoft's issued a clarification regarding upgrades from 6.1 to 6.5: devices that are already out in the marketplace with a minimum of 128MB of RAM and a 400MHz processor or better are theoretically capable of being upgraded -- it's all up to licensees to decide whether they want to go to the trouble of offering the upgrades to their customers. Let's hope, shall we?
Elixir offers new RapidWeaver theme and special bundle
Here at TUAW, RapidWeaver is our longstanding-favorite WYSIWYG web site creation tool. I personally like to to use RapidWeaver for rapid prototyping or for creating sites that don't need a CMS backend. One of the best parts of RapidWeaver is its extensive library of beautiful themes. Elixir makes some of the best looking RapidWeaver themes around and have just introduced a new design to the fold: Aqua.The new theme is $12.95 US, but for the next three days, Elixir is bundling all of its themes together, including the new Aqua thme, for $54.95 US. Elixir has shied away from bundling themes together in the past so this is a great opportunity to get twenty great looking RapidWeaver themes (compatible with both 3.6 and 4.x) for a really reasonable price.I like Elixir's themes because they are not only attractive, but they come with extras and multiple customization options. Couple that with RapdiWeaver's built-in theme-editing abilities and you can create something really slick without exerting a lot of effort.If you purchase the Elixir Extreme Bundle, youll also get a 50% off coupon for use at Elixir's sister site the Icon Lab. The bundle will only be available for the next three days, so if you're looking to put a little more color in your (Rapid)weave, better get a move on.
Preview premium NXE themes before you buy
Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes of the long defunct Dashboard Themes website, comes a new site that has the simple goal of giving XBLM consumers a chance to preview premium dashboard themes. NXE Themes has screenshots of the entire catalog of premium dash skins, including all free and paid content. It's quite the nice community service NXE Themes is offering, seeing that a premium download can cost upwards of 250 Microsoft points.The only negative we can find with the site is the amount of bandwidth that is required. Dial-up users stay far, far away. [Thanks, NBA Kirkland]
DroidBerry theme turns your Bold into a G1, still won't replace the Gmail app
Seriously, what's with the fascination of getting a brand new device and trying to make it look like something completely different? First the 8900 theme for Curves and 88xx's, and then Vista for the iPhone -- will it ever stop? No longer will you have to be envious of your Sidekick brethren, Bold users, as the Android-style interface has finally made the jump to the BlackBerry in the form of DroidBerry, the newest theme from those classifiable techies over at CrackBerry. Only $7 and you could have all that cartoony icon and analog clock-related bliss you could ever wish for -- a small price to pay for a whole lot of beauty.
Free Resistance stuff on the PSN Store tomorrow
It seems everyone's getting into the Christmas spirit today. First free Santa costumes and now we find out that Insomniac are releasing some Resistance related gifts onto the PSN Store during tomorrow's update. These gifts take the form of Resistance 2 XMB themes and a new trailer for the game. Not only that but the map packs for Resistance: Fall of Man will be made available to download for free, in case you're feeling retro this Christmas.Bryan Intihar also states that more Resistance 2 patches are on the way and that "some really cool" new features are coming to MyResistance.net. The PlayStation Blog will have more news on both of these in the near future. In the meantime, be sure to grab all these free goodies when they arrive tomorrow and check out G4's X-Play this Friday at 8pm to see Ted Price talk about his favorite games.
Gold Live members: Free premium Winter Holiday theme
Pssst. Hey, Gold Xbox Live members, over here. This post is just for you. Are the Silver members gone? Good. Okay, here's the deal. Major Nelson has informed us that you (just you, not Silver members) are now entitled to a free Winter Holiday theme. Since neither Major nor Xbox.com provide any images of the Winter theme, we snapped a quick spy picture. We even made it kind of blurry and took at an awkward angle to make it seem more clandestine. Cool, huh? Anyway, like we said, it's free. You can download it by clicking this link. Just don't tell the Silver members. If they ever learn of our opulence, surely they will revolt.
Bowtie: iTunes controller with style
I like the idea of iTunes controllers, but a lot of the apps I try are too CPU intensive or just plain feature-bloated, so I just live with some AppleScripts set to hotkeys. I discovered Bowtie a little while ago, though, and it's a perfect fit for my needs. It's tiny, unobtrusive and its look (and even functionality) is extremely customizable. It provides system-wide hotkeys for skip forward, skip back and play/pause. Depending on the theme you have loaded, the interface can provide cover art and song info, star rating controls and clickable buttons for basic playback control. If have some web design knowledge, Bowtie can be themed with a little CSS and Javascript. There is a starter pack available at MacThemes (several themes from the pack are pictured above); the download is in the first post of a running thread from which tips and tricks for customization can be gleaned. Bowtie has been out as a beta for a while, and I'm uncertain what its current development status is. I really haven't run into any show-stopping bugs, though, which is impressive for such an early beta. Of course, it's a fairly simple machine with a focus on doing a few things well and looking great in the process. What's not to love?
Download Dissidia themes for your PSP
Dissidia: Final Fantasy is out in two weeks, but Square Enix is already offering some sweet, free content. If you love collecting themes for your PSP, then you'll want to download the three that are available off the official Dissidia website. The three themes correspond to the first three Final Fantasies; each theme features their respective hero/villain combination.Just remember -- in order to transfer the files to your PSP -- hook up your PSP to your PC via USB cable and enter USB mode. Then open up the folder "PSP" and then "Themes." Just drag-and-drop it there. Now your themes are good to go. Also, after the break, check out a vid detailing how the game's story mode progresses.[via PSP Hyper]
Download fresh and free Marketplace content
Available for download off the U.S. Xbox Live Marketplace is quite the mix of free themes and gamer pictures. All, like we said, FREE! You can download and choose between Children's Miracle Network content, Rock the Vote content, Stride, Saw V, Star Ocean 4, etc. Also, don't forget to grab your free Dead Space Elite Suit as soon as possible, because it's only available for a limited time. List of fresh and free XBLM content after the break.
Premium PS3 themes available starting tomorrow
Sony announced today on the PlayStation Blog that "premium themes" for PS3 will be available on the PSN beginning tomorrow. Of course, "premium" means there will be a price to pay, and that would be $1-2.The premium themes appear to be a little more artistic than the free ones the company has been doling out on a regular basis since the system launched. Sony states approximately 6-10 premium themes should be available a month and explains in the comments of the post that free themes will continue to be offered along with the premium content.
Education-oriented iWeb Themes
While it's a bit too late for our Back-To-School series, here's an announcement for those in education (student, teacher, parent, or administrator) who use iWeb to create school or personal websites. Jumsoft has announced five new iWeb themes specifically for education. The iWeb Education Themes run the gamut from Primary (at right) and Teens themes for younger students, Cool Class for everyone, and College and University for those in the post-secondary educational world. Each theme consists of a number of templates for the various page types found in iWeb: Welcome, About Me, Photos, My Albums, Movies, Blog, Podcast, and Blank.The themes are available for US$9.99 each, or as a package for US$29.99. iWeb 2 is required to use the new themes.
Xbox releases free Canada Day content
In celebration of Canada's 141st birthday, Canadian Xbox 360 owners have been showered with Xbox related gifts courtesy of Microsoft. Available now on the Xbox Live Marketplace are a set of six five gamer pictures and a classy Canada Day '08 theme for the low, low cost of free. Also, anyone looking to spruce up their wallpaper can pick-up the free Canada Day wallpaper pictured above at Xbox.ca. Make sure to download the art, created by Canadian gamer Sinnix, and ring in Canada Day proper.
Support the Bat w/free Dark Knight XBLM goods
Preparing for this Summer's sure to be mega hit blockbuster The Dark Knight , the marketing powers that be have just released some free movie themed downloads to the Xbox Live Marketplace. Though, sadly, these are only available to U.S. Live subscribers (frowny face).Downloadable is a The Dark Night theme featuring some rather sexy promo shots from the film as well as a gamer picture pack including five pictures to choose from. All very Batman-like and all very delicious! And yes, this very, very, very obsessed blogger (obsessiveness proved by my Dark Knight inspired Facebook profile image) is sporting some Joker gamer picture love. You should do the same ... at least until July 18th.
Listen to exclusive Stargate Worlds audio content
Music can be a really important part of MMOs, if the developer decides that they want it to be. In some games you'll almost immediately turn the audio down to zero and resume listening to your own stuff, but other games like Age of Conan have a musical score that demands to be heard. It is clear that Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment is aiming for the latter with Stargate Worlds, and they have offered followers of the game a chance to listen to some short clips at their community forums.You'll need to be a registered forum user to be able to listen, but if you take the plunge you can download two short clips, composed by SGW sound designer Nick LaMartina. They are both fairly epic and atmospheric, and leave you wanting to hear more. If you do check them out, you can use the links in the article to leave feedback for each piece in the forums.
SCEA releases official PSP theme tutorial
Have you thought about making a custom PSP theme? But, maybe you don't know where to start. Or perhaps you're scared by all the work that goes into it. Sony's official PSP theme guide won't make it any less work to create a theme, but it will give you all the tools necessary to make your own PSP themes. The images necessary require precise specifications, so make sure you follow all the instructions.The theme program offered is available here (Windows only).
