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Vault Boy says Fallout 3 stuff on Xbox Live Marketplace
You heard right. Just in time to celebrate Independence Day in the good ol' US of A, we can now download the gorgeous Fallout 3 trailer on the Xbox Live Marketplace -- in 720p glory mind you -- and admire what a post-nuclear apocalypse Washington, D.C. might look like. A little too unpatriotic for the 4th of July? Then why not just download a pack of Fallout 3 gamer pics going for 100 Microsoft Points (about $1.25) featuring Vault Boy (of course) and a Brotherhood of Steel image. Want something a little bigger? Try a Fallout 3 theme for 150 points (about $1.87) featuring the gorgeous concept art we've been seeing for months. Or don't. Exercise your freedom to choose.%Gallery-3507%
T-Mobile giving out the free goods
Today, we have a few new (and free) gamer pictures and a theme up for download off the Xbox Live Marketplace. Cell phone provider T-Mobile has graciously put up a very pink dashboard theme and a few Sidekick gamer pictures. So, for all of you who are proud owners of Sidekicks or are in love with T-Mobile, now you can show off your cell phone pride. Because you know if Paris Hilton had an Xbox Live account, she'd be all over these gamer pictures. And who doesn't want to be like Paris Hilton?
Microsoft bans sexy Xbox 360 theme
Apparently the 360 Queenz theme was a bit too hot and "provocative" for Microsoft, and they have been quashing the theme and asking people to take down the images of it on various websites. It must have ruffled someone's feathers along the way, or maybe it was just too hot to handle?For our two cents on the matter ... if we have M-rated video games, then why not M-rated themes? A gamer picture is one thing, since anybody can see it, but the only person seeing your theme is you, so what's all the hubbub? Based on the pictures we saw, the theme wasn't all that racy to begin with. You'll see more skin on the cover of Dead or Alive Xtreme 2.There's always the DIY option, and we've seen some pretty over-the-top self-made themes out there. What do you have on yours?
360 Queenz theme will blow your ... mind
Just to make up for ... exposing you to the bleak outlook on the part of the Live community we should best ignore, here's something that will make sure you want to boot to your dashboard every time you start up your 360. Konsole Kingz is bringing us the 360 Queens to Xbox Live Marketplace, in the form of a Dashboard Theme and some gamerpics. All we can say is, "Daaaamn". We have the sneaking suspicion we'll be checking our System blade's preferences far more frequently. The theme will go for 150 MS Points and the picture pack for 80, so that's a fair price for some nice eye candy. Would you want to spice up your 360 with this theme? In case you're too distracted to notice, the rest of the blades can be seen by clicking the "Read" link. Which one's your favorite?[Via Unscripted360, Thanks Channing Lee]
Cologne and movie = free gamer pics and themes [update 1]
It has been a while since we've received free themes or gamer pictures from the XBLM, but that drought is no more. Jump onto Xbox Live and navigate to the gamer pictures and themes section, new releases of course. There you'll find three free downloads today. First up is from the the new Xbox Rewards program where you'll be able to get a free Old Spice Reward Challenge theme. But be warned, no guide background and a single image for every blade makes this free theme moderately worthless. The other free downloads come from the movie called Shooter, featuring Marky Mark Wahlberg. Here you can download a free picture pack and a theme for the movie. The theme is actually good featuring a blue Shooter logo for the guide and shots from the movie on each blade. That's all we have today for free goods, so get downloading.Update 1: Fixed spelling error. And we counted each download separately, one gamer picture set and two themes.
Preview all 360 themes before you buy
A new site just popped up on the net called Dashboard Themes and it looks to be quite useful. They have every theme released for the 360 on the site with screenshots of each blade and guide. Also built into the site is a ranking system, newly released themes list, and the layout is well thought out. Now how cool is that? So now you know where to go before you purchase a theme off of the marketplace or just a place to get an idea of what others like ... this is definitely a great resource.[Via Digg]
On TextMate extras
Like me, there are probably a lot of fresh new TextMate users out there in the audience thanks at least in part to MacHeist, so I thought it would be pertinent to point out a few helpful resources Allan Odgaard (TM's developer) maintains at macromates.com. Of course the searchable mailing list and IRC channel are handy for getting your discussion on, over which TM user Brett Terpstra just shared a WordPress templating bundle he's created - quite possibly a good addition to that theming workflow we just blogged. Another powerful resource is the TextMate wiki, which houses a plethora of learning tools and resources such as a bundle repository if you're looking for some features or a language not included by default, as well as an RSS feed for bundle changes. Of course, what text app would be complete without user submitted themes? Last on my resource roundup (but by no means the end of what's available) are a few TextMate plugins, including a WebMate plugin that turns TM's Web Preview into a full-fledged WYSIWYG HTML editor based on WebKit. There's a lot more from where all this came from, so dive in or simply get your feet wet with this swiss army knife of text editors.
I love my Mac: OS X theme for Nokia S60
Can you really ever get enough of any Apple based themes? Everything from your PC, to Firefox, and even your Blackberry; there seems to be a theme for just about everything. Thanks to Dan Schwartz, he is bringing that Apple flare to Nokia S60 users worldwide that he's made available for S40 users. Now even though Dan labels this as a beta release, we downloaded and played with it for a few days with good success. And our thoughts of it? Not too bad at all. Check out a few more screen shots after the break.[Thanks, Dan S]
Fall Update: Textual healing
Buried in the slew of Fall Update features is an answer to my personal pet peeve: Improved visual display of text in themes. I seriously hope this fix makes a difference because hard-to-read text really discourages the use of themes. This could turn a novelty into something practical. What other less flashy upgrades do you think will have a big impact on your Xbox 360 experience?
Halo Trilogy theme on XBLM
A Halo 3 theme is now available on Marketplace for 150 MS Points or as a bonus with the new Halo faceplate out tomorrow. Here's the official description:The Halo Trilogy dashboard theme is a must-have for serious Halo fans. Available as a free gift with the purchase of the Halo 3 Xbox 360 faceplate, or right now as downloadable marketplace content, the theme features never-before seen scenes from Bungie Studio Halo 1, 2 and 3. Each blade presents a re-imagined view from the Halo universe, including all three iterations of the Master Chief's iconic Spartan armor, from past, present and future.Buyers please weigh in with your review. Does everybody agree that just about all of the game-related themes on XBLM make the text too hard to read?
MC360 XBMC Superman Returns theme
The lameness of most of the themes available on Marketplace (shift a color here, shift a color there) makes this sweet Blackbolt Superman Returns theme for the MC360 XBMC skin look that much cooler. Once again the hacking community puts the pros to shame. Put some effort in it Microsoft, especially if you're going to charge us for this stuff.
iSticky offers notes with reminders, sending via Bonjour, more
Sticky notes are great, but sticky notes that can have reminder alarms, be sent to other Macs via Bonjour, sent over the web and SMS, archived and more - are better. If any of these features have your inner nerd excited, then check out iSticky - a sticky note app on steroids. Also on the feature list are themes, categories, encryption, document linking and more.While we don't think iSticky is Universal yet (at least, the author isn't bragging about it on the site), a demo is available. iSticky also offers a wide range of licenses depending on which features you need and whether you need a family/business pack. Prices run from $16 USD (single license, Bonjour sending but not over the web) up to $90 USD for a 12 license pack with all the toppings. Check it out if Apple's Stickies just aren't cutting it for you anymore.
Xbox 360 theme for XP
I gave up on messing around with Windows themes after an old Xbox skin baked my laptop, but this Xbox 360 theme for XP makes me feel like slowing my computer to a crawl all over again. The feedback on WinMatrix says it's a nice skin including four sub-styles, an icon package and wallpapers. If you decide to try it out, please comment with a review.[Thanks Abuzar]
Skin Thunderbird with a Mail look
Apparently someone by the name of "Riz" has a love-hate relationship with Apple's Mail, for Riz has gone and created a pretty darn accurate Mail theme for Mozilla's Thunderbird. While I don't have a copy of Thunderbird to test this, it seems the look, feel and most of the icons are all present, offering a bit of a home away from home if you prefer Thunderbird's functionality, yet miss Mail's good looks.[via Hawk Wings]
