Mobile Phones News Blog

Images from debugging software claimed to be running on an Apple iPad 3 prototype have been published by BGR. The pictures aren’t of the device itself, but of the data collected by the development tool, and purport to show certain technical features of the forthcoming tablet.

The juiciest morsel to come from the pictures is the presence of an A6 processor inside the tablet, bearing the model number S5L8945X, which is believed to be a quad-core chip.

There will be two iPad 3 models according to the leak, known as the J1 and J2 or iPad 3,1 and iPad 3,2. As before, one will be a Wi-Fi model and the other will have a cellular radio inside, but this time it will support GSM, CDMA and LTE networks.

When the iPad 2 was launched this time last year, the addition of 4G LTE wasn’t talked about much beforehand, however, the rumours really got started prior to the iPhone 4S’s release. While some expect the iPhone 5 to also have a LTE connectivity, others say it’ll first appear on the next iPad and skip another iPhone generation.

Of course, none of this matters here in the UK, as our next-generation mobile network has yet to reach the public anyway.

As to when the iPad 3 will be released, a set of iPad 3 for Dummies books have appeared on Amazon France, complete with a 29 March release date.While this could be pure speculation on the publishers part, it would be odd to sell the book without the device it refers to being available.

How does one go about bringing Space Invaders, an established genre classic, but very much a product of its time, to a new generation of gamers? After all, however familiar the attacking aliens and their ‘womp, womp, womp, womp‘ musical accompaniment may be, the incredibly primitive graphics and simple gameplay won’t satiate many Uncharted or Gears of War fans.

The answer may sound simple – update it accordingly – but a new version should also consider those gamers who love the original. It would be all too easy to alienate (sorry, no pun intended) players who pumped coins with reckless abandon into the arcade machine back in 1978, by ignoring its roots and turning Space Invaders into something crass that would appeal only to hyperactive tweens.

In essence, this was the challenge faced by Taito, who wanted to commemorate the game’s 30th anniversary with an all-new game that would appeal to all players. Released way back in 2009 for iOS, and just before Christmas 2011 on Android, Space Invaders Infinity Gene is the result, but does it manage to keep both newcomers and old-timers happy?

What Infinity Gene does is actually quite interesting, and is clearly the result of a lot of time, effort and love for the original on the part of the developers. Space Invaders is the grandfather of all shoot ‘em up games, leading to Galaxian, Defender, Scramble and many more, as the genre split and mutated to include everything from sideways scrolling games to the most recent evolution of the space shoot ‘em up, ‘Bullet Hell’ games.

Infinity Gene is an evolution of Space Invaders, but it could almost precede all the games mentioned above, as it not only references a dizzying amount of classic titles, but serves as an introduction to them.

The game starts out with an exact recreation of the Space Invaders game, before ‘evolving’ into a scrolling shoot ‘em up. At first, your ship only moves from side-to-side as the level scrolls by, but as you progress through the levels and score more points, you unlock bonuses that include complete movement around the screen. Weapons are upgradeable too, a process that means destroying UFOs and collecting the genes they leave behind. Other weapons are soon unlocked, along with other special features of the game.

Enemies vary greatly, from little aliens shooting around the screen to massive ships that require separate sections destroying before they can be defeated, and tricky beam generators that block your path. All this is accompanied by an electronic score that’s part trance, part chiptune, and perfectly in sync with the on-screen action.

To give an extra dimension to the gameplay, Infinity Gene has a trick up its sleeve: Turn your device to landscape and the game swaps from being a top-down shooter to a sideways scrolling game. It’s a stroke of genius, and truly alters how you play certain levels.

Presented almost entirely in monochrome wireframe-style graphics, with the occasional splash of background colour, Infinity Gene looks decidedly retro. The ships are angular blocks and weapon fire varies between solid straight lines, squiggly lines or solid circles. You’ll pay close attention to the bullets too, as the screen can get very busy, very quickly once you’re into the later levels.

If you’ve been keeping count, that’s about six or seven different genres covered in the above synopsis of the game. Playing Infinity Gene recalled everything from R-Type‘s huge spaceship that takes up its entire third level, Rez’s use of a trance music soundtrack, Star Wars’s filled wireframe graphics and the precision of modern ‘Bullet Hell’ games. But due to Infinity Gene’s style, it never feels derivative, in fact it feels like it has just been discovered on an old hard drive and really pre-dates all of them.

Infinity Gene is straight-forward enough to play, and is genuinely addictive, but it’s a far better game on the iPad as your finger will get in the way on the iPhone, but this isn’t a problem on the larger screened iPad. Although the levels are short, the fast-paced action keeps you coming back for more, and the excellent soundtrack keeps your excitement levels high as you play. Like all good shoot ‘em ups, it’s easy to play, but difficult to master.

For a real challenge, try out the Music bonus level, which lets you listen to a song from your iPhone/iPad’s library and play a level of the game around it. The game quickly throws everything it can at you here, and you’ll need plenty of practice just to make it to the end of a song.

The game isn’t without problems though, the biggest of which is understanding what is going to kill you and what isn’t. The screen is frequently filled with enemy fire and ships, incoming bigger ships and some landscape, however, not everything destroys you on contact and it’s never completely clear what those things are. There’s nothing you can do but rely on trial-and-error, but it does lead to some annoying moments where you’re not sure why you’ve been blown up.

Taito has succeeded in doing something that Hollywood rarely manages: They’ve remade a classic and not only brought something new to the table, but understood its roots in the genre and that there are many fans who don’t just want the same thing with more explosions. Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a brilliant retro shooter that every arcade game fan will love, no matter whether they played the original or not.

A reliable source at the Foxconn manufacturing plant in China has revealed details of the iPhone 5, suggesting that that it is gearing up for production.

The source, who was responsible for leaking accurate information regarding the iPhone 4S last year, told 9to5Mac.has that several sample devices are in existence which vary slightly from one another, making it impossible to tell which one will be the final product.

None of the test handsets have the iPhone 4S form-factor and none feature the much talked-about teardrop shape as was rumoured in the lead up to 4S. All of the samples do, however, feature screen sizes of 4-inches and above according to the leaked information.

The report goes on to suggest that the iPhone 5 launch date could possibly fall around the start of the summer, pointing towards an unveiling at the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference in June.

As with all unsubstantiated rumours, we are taking this latest leak with a pinch of salt. That said, multiple sources have suggested that the latest iPhone iteration will feature a larger screen (as is the prevailing trend within the smartphone market) so this may well turn out to be accurate.