Kotaku: Apple

Beat Sneak Bandit Delivers Really Funkin’ Hard Musical Puzzles to iOS

Evan Narcisse — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:20:00 EST

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Music steals time. Think about it: whether you're making it or listening to it, you're devoting ticks of the watch (mental energy away from some other pursuit.) But, what you get back, hopefully, is enjoyment. Beat Sneak Bandit More »

iPads Yanked only from Some Chinese Stores. Still Available in Shanghai and Beijing.

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 06:30:00 EST

Yesterday, a report surfaced that after Apple lost a lawsuit over the term "iPad" in China, the tablet was getting pulled from the country's shops. More »

Apple Asks the Fair Labor Association to Check Out Its Chinese Labor Suppliers

Mario Aguilar — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:10:00 EST

After enduring weeks of criticism over the working conditions at the Chinese factories that make its products, Apple has asked the Fair Labor Association to look into the matter. The FLA will audit the plants where 90% of Apple products are assembled, including the embattled Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu. More »

Proceeds from Banned Foxconn iPhone Game Given to Foxconn Employee Who Attempted Suicide

Kate Cox — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EST

Molleindustria's critical protest game Phone Story was designed to achieve two ends: to raise consumer awareness of the conditions under which smartphones like the iPhone are produced, and to help serve as a fundraising tool. More »

Customers Petition Apple to End Worker Abuse

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:50:00 EST

Later this morning, Apple users will deliver over 250,000 signatures to the Apple Store in NYC's Grand Central Station, demanding that Apple end Chinese worker abuse. [Change.org and SumOfUs] More »

PS Vita Will Support the Mac OS

Toshitaka Tachibana — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:30:00 EST

On Feb. 8th, Sony is launching the System Firmware Ver. 1.60 for the Vita. Here is some of what this update contains: a new Map application, video recording, and Mac OS support. More »

Dead Steve Jobs Selling New Android Tablet in Taiwan

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:00:00 EST

Apple is in direct competition with Google's Android. Steve Jobs hated it. He once told Walter Isaacson, "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this." More »

Who the Hell Could Beat This iPhone Shooter?

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:20:00 EST

Next month, maniac shooter DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch. More »

Do Apple, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo Really Care? Do We?

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:30:00 EST

For Westerners, the conditions are shocking. Workers slave away for hours on end, pulling overtime, until their legs swell or they suffer from crippling disabilities. More »

Why The Apple Trackpad Might Be The Best Video Game Controller Ever Made

Tim Rogers — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:30:00 EST

I was designing a user interface for someone else's social game the other day, and I was completely oblivious that I'd just recommended a feature that Just Would Not Do. More »

Pictures of the Xbox Factory Jumpers

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:00:00 EST

This week, a report surfaced that a group of 300 Xbox 360 factory workers threatened to commit suicide en masse over a labor dispute. The group took the rooftops, but was finally talked down. Here are the photos. More »

Indie Says Atari's on Warpath Against iPhone Apps with 'Even a Passing Resemblance' to Their Old Games

Owen Good — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST

Vector Tanks was around for at least three years on the iTunes App Store and looked a lot like Battlezone the whole time. It isn't there anymore. Atari recently sent legal papers over to the game's developer, Black Powder Media, which now warns other indie developers that "anything that has even a passing resemblance to an Atari classic," can expect to see a copyright infringement claim. More »

Little Kid Freaks Out over iPod Touch

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:00:00 EST

For years, the Nintendo 64 Kid has been the epitome of holiday game gift giving. Two kids went bananas over getting a Nintendo console, complete with box paw scratching and raised fists. It was a heroic moment. More »

Is Rubber Ducky the One in iBath?

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:30:00 EST

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There's this famous PlayStation tech with a rubber duck and a submarine. Everybody always forgets the submarine, but remembers the duck. The PS3 had a duck tech demo, which didn't just have one duck. It had a bunch. Oh, and pirate ships. More »

These are Apple's iPhone & iPad Games of the Year [Update]

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 03:20:00 EST

Every year, Apple holds its own awards for the best in iPhone and iPad applications. Its best of 2011 have been announced, and the top games are...unsurprising. More »

Apple iPhone, iPad Get Official Xbox Live App

Brian Crecente — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:20:00 EST

A surprise, official Xbox LIVE app just hit Apple's iTunes. More »

This Shitty Developer Has No Brains (Or Giant Balls)

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Top Best Adult Entertainment. It's not a name that springs to mind alongside the likes of Nintendo, Blizzard, Valve or BioWare, and there's a reason for that. This is one of the worst developers in the world. More »

Jokes Fly Faster Than Arrows in the Goofy-Yet-Epic Bard's Tale

Kirk Hamilton — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:30:00 EST

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The Bard's Tale, the highly enjoyable action role-playing game that launches today at the App Store, has a long, storied history—far longer and storied-er than your average iOS game. The first Bard's Tale was a well-loved 1985 computer role-playing game, whose protagonist was, appropriately enough, a singing Bard. That alone set it apart from most other RPGs, which tend to feature protagonists in the more familiar warrior, thief, and mage molds. More »

Lawsuit Dropped with "Jew or Not a Jew" iPhone App's Removal

Owen Good — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 15:00:00 EST

If someone was going to sue over an iPhone app called "Jew or Not Jew," I would have expected it to be an infringement claim coming from Saturday Night Live, or Al Franken, the Minnesota senator who wrote a sketch by that name which aired in 1988 here in the U.S. Instead, it was an action brought under France's anti-racism codes by groups offended by the quiz game, regardless of the fact a Jewish man coded it. More »

Easing Our Way Into Subscription-Based Gaming

Kirk Hamilton — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:00:00 EST

There's a now-classic scene that takes place in many an alien invasion flick: The protagonist has finally realized that something is amiss, that the kooky guy shouting conspiracy theories for the first quarter of the film might have been on to something. "Where are the aliens?" he wonders. And the response: "They're already among us." More »

At Long Last, Chrono Trigger Will Come To iOS

Kirk Hamilton — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:30:00 EST

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The "at long last" in the title there is maybe a liiitle bit joking—after all, we've had several versions of Chrono Trigger available for some time now, from the original versions to the Wii virtual console and the Nintendo DS, through the many versions that are playable through emulation. I've played through the game a couple of times now, but haven't touched it in a while, partly because I have been waiting for it to come to iOS. More »

Robots, Gunfights and the Unreal Engine, all on the iPhone

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:45:00 EDT

Epoch, a cover-based shooter developed by a bunch of former 2K Australia guys, will be out on the App Store on November 10. Amazing how far these little mobile games have come, no? More »

The Games Industry's Biggest Influence at the Moment is Apple, Apparently

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:30:00 EDT

At least, that's what around 1,000 games industry employees reckon, as the results of a survey for the London Games Conference show. More »

The Time Steve Jobs Got "the Kissing Disease" (He Wasn't Making Out!)

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:30:00 EDT

It's a scourge of junior high school students everywhere: Mononucleosis. The highly infectious disease is colloquially dubbed the "kissing disease". But that's not how Steve Jobs got it. He got it making a video game. More »

The Huge Hardware Implications for Grand Theft Auto V and the Future of Video Games

Stephen Totilo — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EDT

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In a year full of headlines about Apple, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, it's possible to think that the forces that shape the future of what we'll play and where we'll play it is now solely in the hands of the people who make plastic and metal boxes. Or maybe it's in the hands of the platform makers, not just the architects of the 3DS, the iPad, the Kinect, the PlayStation 3, but also people like Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, get to call the shots. More »

Which of the Console Companies will an Apple "Smart Television" Kill?

Joel Johnson — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:20:00 EDT

There's going to be another round of consoles. There's another Xbox coming, another PlayStation. Anything could happen in the next couple of years before they're released. For instance, Apple could start selling "smart televisions". More »

Mooncraft is Like Minecraft. On the Moon.

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:30:00 EDT

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There's a point that a shameless rip-off of a more well-known, established game can be not quite shameless enough to be barred from Apple's App Store. And Mooncraft knows the point well. More »

Japanese English Versus Siri

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 08:00:00 EDT

Siri is not only miffed by Scottish English, it also doesn't follow English spoken with a Japanese accent. More »

iPhone 4S Weekend Sales Top 4 Million

Brian Crecente — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:04:28 EDT

Apple said today they sold more than 4 million iPhone 4S in the three days since its launch on Oct. 14. They also report that more than 25 million customers are now using iOS 5, which upgrades, but still doesn't even come close to fixing the iPhone's Gamecenter. More »

The Best iOS Gamer in The World

Stephen Totilo — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:40:00 EDT

Congratulations, JeNeI_7, you are the best iPhone or iPad gamer on the planet. You're not a machine, are you? More »

Valve Boss Sees a Future In Which Apple Has Killed the Video Game Console

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:30:00 EDT

Gabe Newell, the man at the top of Valve Software, has had a vision of the future. At some point in Gabe's futureworld, Apple will control the entertainment in your living room, making "the notion of a separate console platform" disappear. More »

How Atari Sent Steve Jobs On a Spiritual Quest to India

Kirk Hamilton — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 11:40:00 EDT

At his talk at GDC Online in Austin, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell talked about a wide variety of things, among which was Apple founder Steve Jobs, who he hired back in 1974. (For a complete story, see this great article at Gamasutra. "I gave Steve Jobs his first job," Bushnell said, "That's an interesting resume line." More »

Create Your Own Musical Villages With the Lovely Isle of Tune HD

Kirk Hamilton — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EDT

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Take one part Sim City, one part Rock Band, and one part music sequencer and you've pretty much got Isle of Tune, which was released today for the iPad. It's not quite a "game," but it's still totally cool enough to merit consideration for our Gaming App of the Day. More »

Apple + Aperture Science = GLaDOSiri, a Mash-Up Triumph

Evan Narcisse — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 10:20:00 EDT

Once Apple introduced the Siri AI personal assistant, it was only a matter of time until someone mashed up the introductory video so that it was GLaDOS living inside of Cupertino's new smartphone. More »

Remembering Apple's One Serious Attempt at a Video Games Console

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Today is a day a lot of folks will be remembering the good, the bad and the downright inspirational from the company Steve Jobs helped found all the way back in 1976. More »

Video Game Creatives and Giants Offer Brief, Somber Tribute to Steve Jobs

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:30:00 EDT

News of the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs spread quickly today via Twitter, with video game developers, designers and executives mourning the loss of the software and hardware visionary. They offered brief, somber reactions to Jobs' passing showing the breadth of his influence and impact. More »

Steve Jobs' Voicemail

Joel Johnson — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:00:00 EDT

During the iPhone 4 leak, I somehow, through no real grift of my own, found myself in possession of Steve Job's phone number. It went directly to his desk phone. More »

From a Bit Player to a Mobile Force, Apple's Gaming Legacy Under Steve Jobs

Owen Good — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:00:00 EDT

Popularly regarded as a distant runner-up to the Windows PC, Apple nonetheless played key and even dominant roles in shaping the history of video games over the past 35 years, emerging from an utterly marginalized brand in home computer gaming to a force almost unilaterally shaping the course of mobile gaming today. More »

Apple Founder Steve Jobs Has Died

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:40:00 EDT

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, passed away today, according to a statement from the company. He was 56. More »

10 Questions Siri Should Be Able to Answer for Gamers

Kirk Hamilton — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:40:00 EDT

Today at Apple's live iPhone event, Apple's Scott Forstall demoed a new iteration of the personal assistant "Siri," an artificial intelligence that understands questions users ask and responds with helpful information. Siri itself isn't new, but this latest version of the program is exclusive to the just-announced iPhone 4s. More »