Apple announced today during its quarterly conference call that it has already surpassed its goal of 10 million iPhone sales in the calendar year of 2008. The company, which sold just under 7 million iPhones during the September quarter alone, said that this was the iPhone's "breakout quarter."

The 6.9 million iPhones sold during Apple's fourth fiscal quarter added up to more iPhones than sales during the entire lifetime of the original iPhone (6.1million).

Apple managed to easily meet its goal, stated back in 2006, with several months to go before the calendar year is over. This was despite much doubt and criticism from analysts, who pointed to a slowing market and Apple's prior insistence on revenue sharing with carriers. There was plenty of evidence pointing to the contrary, however, and Apple could not have been more pleased to announce it today.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs spoke during the conference call about the iPhone's wild success this year. "Apple beat RIM!" he declared. "RIM is a good company that sells good products," he added, "but measured by revenues (not units), Apple has become the world's third-largest mobile phone supplier."

Jobs added that customers will download the 200 millionth app from the App Store tomorrow, and the rate of new applications is skyrocketing. Additionally, the new notebooks launched last week had a "very strong launch," and the level of quality is "mind-blowing" for their price points.

Check our front page coverage of Apple's financial results to get a broader picture of how well Apple's quarter went. Here's a preview: $25 billion in the bank with zero debt. Yeow.

NXP and BMW Group Research have teamed up to develop and unveil the world's first smart car key, and have prototyped a device that would be capable of far more than simply unlocking a vehicle. 

According to the semiconductor firm founded by Philips, the key is powered by the SmartMX security chip and is intended to allow the driver to perform quick and secure electronic payments with a car key. You might remember the Netherlands-based firm as the company behind the hacked transit card earlier this month.

The NXP MIFARE System was vulnerable to attacks on the relatively ancient  CRYPTO1 encryption system, but the company won't be using this solution for its new design. Instead, the device will use NXP's SmartMX chip, which is designed to use AES and other, open encryption standards rather than its own proprietary system. 

In short, the key prototype will be a personalized credit card that allows contactless payments to be made and will offer the ability for personalized in-vehicle services in BMW cars users own or drive. The SmartMX P5CD081 uses a small antenna and is an integrated dual-interface chip that will be compliant with Common Criteria EAL 5+ certified. NXP says the certification will ensure that the credit card application complies with the highest security requirements.

Fieldrunners from Sub Atomic Studios debuted last week on the iTunes App Store to much joy among iPhone-owning Tower Defense enthusiasts everywhere. The screenshots on the store look promising, but will the game live up to the scrutiny of the same individuals who spend hours at a time in front of their computers playing finely crafted Flash-based titles?

In Fieldrunners, you are both an Army engineer and a general. Your job is to prevent the oncoming enemies from crossing the battlefield. There is only one way in and one way out for the invading hordes, and they won't stop until their numbers are exhausted. That's after 100 raiding attacks are sent or until 20 of their units reach the field's exit. Your job is to position and build towers to impede the competing army's progress. Among your arsenal of towers are the Gatling Gun (a short range, quick firing, decent damage weapon), the Goo Tower (a tower that slows approaching enemies, but does no physical damage), the Missile Tower (which shoots at long range and whose munitions will follow an enemy unit across the field), and the Tesla Tower (which shoots powerful lightning bolts at its unlucky opponents causing massive amounts of damage).

Towers at various stages of upgrade.

Each tower can only be deployed if you have enough funds to pay for it. You start the game with $15, but can earn more by defeating individual enemies along the way. Most commonly, enemies are worth about $1 or $2 each, but can be worth as much as $10 or $20 for some of the more difficult units. The towers start out relatively cheap at $5 for the Gatling Gun and $10 for the Goo Tower, but quickly become more expensive, with the missile tower costing $20 and the Tesla tower costing a bank-breaking $70.

In addition to the initial cost of the tower, you can spend yet more money upgrading the ones you have already purchased. Each tower can be upgraded a total of two times, which, in turn, increases the damage they can cause (except the Goo tower, whose slow down just becomes more effective). Doing this, however, can cost anywhere between 30-80 percent of the original purchase price depending on tower type.

The enemies vary from level to level, but reappear throughout the game. There are rather unimpressive peons, muscular soldiers, soldiers riding three-wheelers, jeeps, tanks, killer field-crossing robots, and helicopters. While peons are fairly simple to pick off, it becomes more challenging as the speedy three-wheelers come barreling through, or a heavily armored tank labors across the battlefield.

While your natural instinct may be to create a field full of Tesla Towers and obliterate anything that dares cross, this simply doesn't work. While they will take out the tanks and the robots, they won't fire quickly enough to take out all the three-wheelers that come across the screen. Build Gatling Guns and goo towers to take out the speedy units, and the tanks and robots will get through. Build the majority of your powerful towers to the sides of the field and the helicopters will easily fly overhead. It is a game of balance, strategy, and forethought. One has to carve out a path carefully consisting of the correct towers in order to dominate the game.

One example of tower layout and game play.

The game play offers something for beginners and advanced tower defense aficionados. It offers three levels of difficulty, which increase the enemy's ability to take hits and the amount of points scored for each kill. A pro to the genre should be able to beat the Easy setting in under five tries, but will still have difficulty with the Medium and Hard settings. I am no newbie to tower defense games, but after a week of game play, I have yet to get past level 88 of the medium difficulty setting. I have completed all 100 of the rounds on the easy setting.

I had some initial fear that the game wouldn't have much replay value. However, once I discovered how difficult the game could be and the high score tracking used for local players, my worries were quelled. I have yet to discover the intricacies of how the scoring system works, though; it sees to be more complex than each unit being worth a certain number of points.

The entire feel of the game is very polished. Many browser-based tower defense games suffer from performance issues, but despite the huge numbers of onscreen elements for the iPhone's CPU to track, there is zero lag. The graphics are very well done and the controls are intuitive enough for most, but the game offers instructions for those who aren't familiar with how this genre works. The battlefield is a perfect size; the entire are can be viewed at once by making the pinch gesture on the multitouch display or, alternatively, you can zoom in on specific areas of the field.

Upgrading a single tower among a densely-populated area when the field is zoomed out can lead to mis-taps, but when zoomed in all the way, this is less of a problem. The only other issue I experienced with the UI was when I tried to put a tower in the lower portion of the field. Before I learned to reposition the screen, this led to accidentally hitting the exit button. However, this is moot since the developer worked in an "are you sure you want to quit?" screen.

An entire game of Fieldrunners can take up a good chunk of your afternoon; luckily, the developer worked into the game an auto-save state that allows you to begin where you last left off after your device rings or your wife yells at you to stop playing that game and to take out the trash. It should come as no surprise that playing the game will eat your battery a little more quickly than general use will, but the game seems to be optimized fairly well. I would estimate that you get about three hours of use before your battery dies.

Fieldrunners is a must have for any fan of the tower defense genre and a solid title for anyone looking to pick up another game for their device. The price point is spot on, and the game play is addicting and offers some replay value. The game is polished, but can be a little heavy on the battery, and I'm not sure that is the developer’s fault. It's definitely one of the better apps I have encountered on the iTunes App Store thus far.

Application: Fieldrunners (App Store Link)
Publisher: Sub Atomic Studios
Price: $4.99

Some of the largest LCD panel makers are cutting output by as much as 30 percent in Q4 2008, despite the fact that the holiday season usually brings increased production orders as electronics manufacturers prepare to meet holiday demand. 

The soft global economy has led LCD panel makers to cut output anywhere from 20 percent to 30 percent according to DigiTimes, with the cuts continuing into the first quarter of 2009. The move isn't entirely unexpected, given that experts were predicting a general oversupply in 2009, but the degree of the trim and its swiftness are greater than previously predicted.

Earlier this year, demand for LCD panels was growing strongly on the back of the digital transition and the 2008 summer Olympic games, which were broadcast in HD. To meet the expected demand over the year many LCD makers were building new fabrication plants and making new agreements to build production capacity.

After the bottom fell out of the economy, LCD makers seem to be taking notice of the trouble NAND makers are having with selling prices below manufacturing costs due to a significant oversupply on the market.  Major LCD panel makers, including AU Optronics, Chi Mei Optoelectronics and Chunghwa Picture Tubes have denied plans for layoffs, but the firms are showing signs of adjusting labor resources. AU Optronics will be assigning existing employees to handle new products rather than hiring new employees and Chunghwa says that more of its contract employees are taking vacations. In an effort to save money, 100 executives at Chi Mei Optoelectronics are taking a voluntary 10 percent pay cut.

We reported in July that LCD makers were already cutting production despite strong demand for LCDs. LG Display, the world's second largest maker of LCD panels cut production by 10 percent in August. The fear is that a further softening economy would require more price cuts to move panels already on the market in a time when profits are already slim.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) released the results of its 15th annual CE Holiday Purchase Patterns Study this week claiming that despite the uncertain economy in the U.S. holiday sales in the electronics industry are expected to grow.

The CEA expects a 3.5 percent growth in sales of consumer electronics over Q4 2008 compared to Q4 2007. Adults in America reportedly have consumer electronic devices in four of the top ten slots on their holiday wish lists. Computers are reportedly second place, behind perennial favorite peace and happiness for man. Call me cynical, but I think that "favorite" falls squarely under the list of things people wish for because they feel obligated to do so—would peace and happiness be any less desired if it happened to get delivered on, say, March 22nd?  I think not. 

Among the top consumer electronic items on wish lists this holiday season are TVs, game consoles, and cell phones. Almost 80 percent of adults expressed interest in electronic devices for the holiday season. The CEA claims this is a four percent increase from last year while teen desire for electronic gadgetry increased even more. A full 84 percent of teens want to receive a high-tech this holiday season, an increase of eight percent from 2007. [97 percent of teens, meanwhile, wish their parents would forget Facebook, MySpace, and iPods exist -Ed]. 

According to the study, consumers plan to spend a total of $1,473 this holiday season including food, gifts, and decorations. That's a drop of $200, or about 12 percent. A significant portion of most holiday budgets, 28 percent, will be allotted for consumer electronics purchases according to the study.

At the same time market research firm TNS Retail Forward (note no vested interest in the consumer electronics industry) has predicted that this will be the weakest holiday season since the dot-com burst in 1991. TNS forecasts retail growth at only 1.5 percent for Q4 2008 compared to 1.2 percent in 1991 for all retail segments combined.

Still the research firm expects that consumer electronics stores will be an exception this holiday season with sales forecast to grow by 4 percent, slightly more than the CEA is predicting for the quarter. Research from a firm outside the electronics industry seems to confirm that the consumer electronics market will be going strong this holiday season despite the fact that some large retailers are hurting.

Circuit City is seeing some of the lowest stock prices ever and Best Buy was unable to meet its projections for Q3 2008. Baring any further significant issues for the economy perhaps the consumer electronics giants can post some decent results in Q4 2008 despite the weak economy.

Further Reading:

CEA Press Release

TNS Retail Forward

Sometimes I get tired of writing about carbon nanotubes. I could probably find enough carbon nanotube research papers every week to practically fill Nobel Intent with content by myself. Unfortunately, my constant search for more interesting titanium research often seems unrewarding, because carbon just does so much cool stuff. We’ve shown you magnetic carbon, carbon nanotube gecko adhesives, and improved lasers for telecommunications (to name a few). Now, we bring you carbon nanotubes taking the job of everything but the silicon itself in a silicon-based solar cell—with respectable energy conversion efficiencies to boot.

We've covered solar energy generation recently here at Nobel Intent, so we’ll spare you the down-and-dirty details of how it works, and get right to the good stuff. Here’s how researchers have made what may be a revolutionary new solar cell: they took n-doped silicon (more negative charge carriers), and put webs of double-walled carbon nanotubes on it. That’s pretty much it. Anti-climactic, but surprisingly effective.

The real news isn’t in revolutionary processing techniques—first graders around the country pulling apart cotton balls to make cobwebs for Halloween decorations are well on their way to mimicking the results. The fact that the carbon nanotubes are replacing several key components of the solar cell in one fell swoop is a big deal. Usually, you need to have several material junctions sandwiched together to convert photon energy into electrical energy, move charges around, etc. Here, the double walled carbon nanotubes act as a transparent electrode that allows light to penetrate the cell, as a heterojunction to separate positive and negative charges, and as a conductive network for moving the charges (allowing us to put those electrons to work).

Efficiencies under laboratory conditions that simulated standard solar radiation reached 5%-7%. This is a far cry from the peak efficiencies in the most exotic solar cells, and researchers characterized their cell efficiency as "moderate." But this is still significantly higher than the 1-2 percent efficiencies that have been reported while integrating carbon nanotubes into polymer based cells.

The key here, as with polymer cells, is trading lower efficiency for much cheaper and more sustainable production. The carbon nanotubes here did not have to be sorted (carbon nanotubes come in several different flavors, depending on their electrical properties), and they could simply be pulled out of the furnace in their naturally web-like state and put to use after a few chemical washings. The nanotube webs were floated on water and, after a few drops of ethanol coaxed them to spread out, they were transferred directly to the silicon and allowed to air dry. This process is almost guaranteed to scale effectively in an industrial setting.

As with most preliminary work, there are still several paths left to explore that may lead to further performance gains—different nanostructures could be used, and polycrystalline silicon and thin film technologies to further lower costs and increase flexibility. Carbon’s pursuit of functions traditionally held by other materials seems to be relentless. Nanotubes seem to be just like zombies. You’ve been warned.

Advanced Materials, 2008. DOI: 10.1002/adma.200801810

Though we have already reviewed Fable II, both through the eyes of a reviewer and through the eyes of a non-gamer, there's one last bit of critique needed. Today, alongside the game's retail launch, the online co-op patch has gone live. This patch enables players to take the co-op experience over Xbox Live.

Getting into an online game is as simple as entering your offline world. After fixing your online options to give either everyone or only friends access to your game, you'll find a number of floating orbs moving through the world, each of which represents another player. By moving towards an orb and clicking on it, you can interact with that player. You can compare stats, exchange gifts, or invite him or her to your game.

Once the two of you are connected in a single game, you're free to roam around the world with your partner in crime, completing quests and chatting with each other in your personal version of Albion. What's neat about this is that everything the two of you do together influences your world, so if your friend decides to kill some townspeople, they'll be dead in your game forever. But that's where the cool bits of the co-op end.

Though there was some confusion with regard to whether or not co-op players could actually use their own avatar, it turns out that our initial evaluation was correct: neither in local co-op nor online co-op can you use your own character. In both modes, the visiting player is required to pick a henchman rather than using their actual character that simply adopts the experience and skill set of the visiting player's own character. Beyond the initial customization of alignment, gender, and primary weapons, this henchman cannot be customized. For some, this will fundamentally ruin the entire Diablo-like experience.

But that's not all that's wrong with the online co-op. Offline, the camera is locked to keep both you and your partner to a single screen, which isn't unusual in an offline environment. But the fact that the same locking mechanism translates into the online play is a big let-down. You and your online playmate are forced to stick around one another, and combined with the fact that visitors can't customize their characters, this makes for a pretty rough time online.

All in all, it seems as though co-op has wound up being very much a bonus feature in Fable II. It's there if you want to use it but it's certainly not the best way to experience the game, especially if you have terrible friends like I do who seem hell-bent on ruining my world one dead wife at a time. Still, there are some interesting bits about it: it's just a shame it's so limited for what seems like no real reason.

Just because Apple and Psystar have agreed to participate in an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process doesn't mean that the clone maker's antitrust lawsuit is off, Psystar says. The company acknowledged that both parties had entered into the non-binding agreement to try and resolve the antitrust issue out of court, but the fact that they have done so doesn't mean the case isn't moving forward as planned.

"The Northern District [of California] requires you to go through ADR," attorney Colby Springer (of Carr & Feerrell LLP, the law firm representing Psystar) told Computerworld today. "It's standard practice, not for all courts, but the practice is growing. Quite frankly, all the talk about entering negotiations is really a non-story."

Welcome to the wacky world of Apple news, Colby, where everyone breathlessly reports on every tiny detail that is remotely related to Apple.

In fact, Psystar doesn't even seem to believe that the mediation process will do much for the case or resolve any disagreements between the two companies. "This will go on a dual track now, the ADR and the case," Springer said. He felt the "real story" revolved around Psystar's objection to Apple's motion to dismiss the case.

In Psystar's objection, the company stated that Apple is "simply wrong," and that Apple had used the exact same arguments as Psystar to dismiss antitrust claims against its own products (such as the iTunes Store and the iPhone). Given the comments from Springer today, it certainly looks as if the ADR process is doomed right from the start and that this case will be moving forward. Keep an eye out on November 6, as that's when the two companies are scheduled to argue the motion to dismiss.

The first episode of Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness was a fun adventure game that featured the site's humor to great effect. It was also released on the Xbox 360, as well as PC, Linux, and Mac flavors. Sadly, Sony fans have been left in the cold until now, but the game has finally received a release date and price on the PS3. 

"We're so excited to finally be able to get this version into gamers' hands," said Hothead Games founder Vlad Ceraldi, "that we wanted to extend the same value and opportunity to anyone else who hasn't had a chance yet to play Episode One. Other platforms and digital distribution services can make their own decision regarding pricing, of course, but we're recommending under $15 for this and all episodes going forward. Episode Two will be coming to PLAYSTATION Network before Christmas and we are really happy how it turned out." 

In other words, Microsoft has yet to drop the price on the Xbox Live Arcade. Anyone wants to take bets on whether or not they will? 

This is an interesting case. I interviewed the creator of this game for a news story about iPhone development, and since he's a member of our community I didn't think I could objectively review the game after the interview. So I told Frank to give it a look and didn't tell him why or that we were doing more coverage of the title. He went in blind, thinking it was a normal review, and luckily for Manta Research, he liked what he played. -Ben

With the relatively open nature of the App Store and the sheer number of games that are added every week, you never quite know what you're going to get when you plop down a few dollars on something. Take Virus, for example. For $2, you get to battle evil viruses in the blood stream by creating large white blood cells. Interesting? Yes. Weird? You bet.

To be fair, though, Virus is really a prototypical iPhone game in that it's a very simple, well-executed idea that's endlessly replayable and hits a impulse-buy price point. As mentioned, the game involves defending the bloodstream from various types of viruses. Small mine-like viruses randomly move across the screen, and it's your job to create white blood cells to battle them.

To create a white blood cell, you simply press a finger onto the screen and hold it: the longer you hold it, the bigger the blood cell gets. The goal, then, is to fill the screen with white blood cells and trap the viruses. The catch, though, is that any growing white blood cell hit by a moving virus is terminated, and the player loses a life. To combat this, the game can be tilted about to move existing white blood cells in an effort to trap the viruses and leave the rest of the field open and safe for making more white blood cells.

It's a strange concept, to be sure, but the game actually plays really well. Tilting the device while trying to quickly make more blood cells can get frantic as the number of viruses present in each level continues to grow. There's also a touch of strategy as well in that you need to beat the clock, and you have a certain set limit per level of how many total white blood cells can be used.

Though it's only a $2 game, the presentation is actually not as bad as you might think. A sharp-looking bloodstream reel animates behind the play field and changes as you tilt the device, giving the game a cool look to it in motion. Likewise, the white blood cells are surprisingly detailed, sporting transparencies and little internal bits that move around as you play. Sadly, the lack of sound makes the game a bit sparse, but you can always play with some music in the background (I personally chose the theme song to House).

If you're looking for a simple time-killer while you're on the go, you could do worse than Virus. Give the free Virus Lite a whirl. It's a good idea that's well-executed and even sports online leaderboards to keep you competitive. There are worse ways to spend $2 on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Name: Virus (iTunes Link)
Publisher: Manta Research
Price: $2

As the original Scene It? for the Xbox 360 proved to be a hit with casual gamers, Microsoft is looking to repeat the same success with a new entry in the series titled Scene It? Box Office Smash. A demo of the game is out on the Xbox Live Marketplace now, and those who try it out will get a first glimpse at the upcoming Avatars due with the new interface in November.

The game allows players to use their Xbox Avatars as avatars within the game, much like certain Wii titles such as Mario Kart allow players to use their Miis. Currently, the demo includes a bunch of pre-loaded characters, both male and female, but once the dashboard update lands, you'll be able to load in your own.

Judging by the assortment of pre-generated characters, the variety of Avatars out of the box looks like it could be pretty good. Whereas the Miis are limited to only facial customization, the Avatars sport clothing that looks detailed, given the relative simplicity of the models. One goth girl model featured some nice detailing on the bustier she was wearing and a set of studded jewelery around her neck and waist, while another casual dude sported some fairly detailed kicks. If there is enough clothing and accessory selection at launch, the Avatars could easily one-up the Miis out of the gate.

Also impressive was the animation of the Avatars. Nintendo's Miis are very well-animated and have a diverse range of emotions that certain games use by temporarily swapping out mouths during a game to make the character look happy or sad. While the Nintendo animations are distinctly more emotive and Japanese in nature, you can see the American influence on the Miis. The emotions and animations are much more subtle and realistic, as opposed to animated and cartoon-like.

For example, as I left the game running, the aforementioned goth girl sat slouched in her chair, darting her eyes left and right now and then as though her attention was waning, while another trendy-looking female began to twist her head impatiently while her expression changed to grief.

No matter how you slice it, the Xbox Avatars are clearly a direct answer to Miis. Microsoft may claim that World of WarCraft was more of an inspiration than anything Nintendo made, but it won't take very long watching these cutesy avatars sitting on a couch and sprouting Japanese-like emotes for you to see the resemblance. Is that a bad thing? No, not really. In fact, I welcome the day when we can use these avatars in Gears of War 2. There would be something so satisfying about using a super-deformed, custom-clothed me to take out Ben's avatar with a chainsaw.

It has been exactly a week since SOCOM: Confrontation hit stores, and as you may have noticed, our review of the game still hasn't gone up; the game has suffered one of the worst launches of an online title in recently memory and still remains largely unplayable. However, over the course of the last week, I have managed to sneak some playable time in while the game had spurts of functionality, and for the SOCOM fan, there's going to be an excellent game here when all the issues are hammered out.

Though the Slant Six team issued an emergency server solution last week, which was designed to at least make the game playable more often than not, a large chunk of the game's core functionality has been shut off in the rankings and the community features. Unfortunately, this has brought about new problems, including an error prompt in the game that repeatedly pops up every ten seconds or so and must be closed, lest they build up. There are also countless disconnections, crashes, and even freezes.

From testing so far, though, it appears that the server problem may only be the first issue that the game has to deal with. The game's pre- and post-game menu interface is extremely cumbersome, and a few design decisions really make me question how an online-only game could have such a lacking interface. The community system has a number of problems so rudimentary that it's hard to believe the game was in development for so long.

Even something as simple as inviting a friend into a game is cumbersome. On your end, it's straightforward enough: you first have to enter the game, and then send your friend an invite. On the other end, you friend has to first go to the game's in-game mailbox, locate the invite, read it and then click "Accept," and then manually navigate into a channel to be sent into your game. Why accepting the invite from the mail can't automatically boot them there is beyond me.

To its credit, though, the building blocks are there for what could very well be the best SOCOM game in the series when everything gets hammered out. The game returns the series to its inaugural man-on-man roots, focusing on slower-paced tactical action with just a hint of unrealistic arcade-like feel. You're punished for making the wrong decision about switching weapons and reloading in the thick of battle, but you can still run and gun enough to be able to move around while fighting.

When the game works, it's much fun to play even with all the interface problems, but it simply doesn't work enough well enough yet to even be considered ready for release. The inclusion of the headset went a long way towards allowing Sony to dodge the bullet somewhat by effectively making SOCOM cost $10. Were it not for that, I'd be furious. But as it stands, I'm just disappointed. SOCOM is one of the core Sony franchises, and its premiere online one, and to see it so broken isn't the best confidence boost for the growth of the PlayStation Network.

When most animals are under attack, they can simply get up and move; they have the option of fight or flight. Plants, on the other hand, don't really have two options; I suppose they're faced with a fight or die situation. New research from my alma mater, the University of Delaware, has shown that certain plants, when under attack from microbial invaders, can call on bacteria to do the fighting for them.

Inset image credit: University of
Delaware/Thimmaraju Rudrappa

Set to be published in the November edition of Plant Physiology, the Delaware team examined the response of Arabidopsis thaliana to an invasion by the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae. Plants in the control group withererd and had their leaves yellow a few days after being infected. In the experimental population, the plants had their roots inoculated with the beneficial bacterium Bacillus subtilis; these plants were perfectly healthy even days after the infection by the harmful microbe.

The addition of B. subtilis is not a novel idea, as farmers use it to boost the immunity of their plants. It is known to form a biofilm around plant roots and has antimicrobial properties, according to a co-author of the paper, Harsh Bais. However, in this work, the researchers were able detect the transmission of a "long-distance signal" from the plant leaves to the B. subtilis in the soil. The signal went via the roots, which responded by secreting malic acid, a carbon-rich chemical used to attract the helpful bacterium backup.

By tagging the helpful bacterium and using confocal microscopy, the researchers were able to conclusively determine that the response in the roots occurred because of what was happening at the leaves. The team has not yet determined the entire signaling process from leaf to root, but are working on it using pathogen-associated molecular markers. According to Prof. Bais, "plants can't move from where they are, so the only way they can accrue good neighbors is through chemistry."

Plant Physiology, 2008. Upcoming.

Ubisoft has announced that its upcoming console RTS Tom Clancy's EndWar will also be getting the portable treatment, coming to both the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. The game has players controlling armies of American, Russian, and European troops during a fictional World War III, set in 2011.

The switch in platforms will see the game go turn-based, though Ubisoft promises "simultaneous move and attack phases" that "make the experience as intense and authentic as real-time strategy." The game will each feature three different campaigns—one for each faction—with more than 20 different air, ground, and naval units and 30 different single-player missions per faction. There will also be some light RPG elements, as units gain experience throughout the game.

In addition to the single player campaigns, EndWar will also feature two-player versus combat, though it has not been specified whether or not this is local or online multiplayer. The same goes for the included mission editor, which allows players to share their custom battlefields and scenarios.

There is no word yet on what differences there will be between the two versions of the game, aside from included touch-screen controls on the DS. The game also won't include the much-touted voice commands of its console counterparts.

The PSP and DS version of Tom Clancy's EndWar will be released on November 4.

In a note to investors yesterday, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster cited NPD's latest sales estimates for July, August, and September, and thinks Apple's quarterly and yearly earnings call today will paint a rosy picture. Apple should easily top Q3 sales results for Macs, with Munster expecting as many as 2.8 million Macs sold. He also estimates 11 million iPods and 5 million iPhones sold.

Munster's analysis of the NPD numbers suggest Apple will report between 2.7 and 2.8 million Macs sold in Q3. That will meet or beat Wall Street estimates of 2.7 million. September year-over-year growth is expected to be around 19 percent, which is lower than August's 23 percent and July's outstanding 43 percent. With the recent economic downturn and new notebook designs expected, this comes as little surprise. "The months of August and September were tough year-over-year compares, as new iMacs were introduced in August 2007, but new Macs were not introduced until [October] in 2008," Munster explained in his report. "Also, it appears that the weak consumer environment is negatively impacting Apple's business."

iPod sales should clock in at 11 million, which should also beat Wall Street predictions. Though growth has slowed significantly for iPods, selling 11 million still represents a 7 percent year-over-year increase, which Munster notes should be seen as a positive. Apple is also expected to report sales of about 5 million iPhones in the last quarter, leaving them only 2.5 million away from their goal of 10 million iPhone sales in 2008.

All told, it looks to be another great quarter for Apple. And though there is plenty of doom and gloom predicted for many companies due to the current state of the economy, Apple should be able to hold its own. "The company has recently leveraged its unit volumes in the iPod, Mac, and iPhone businesses to lower prices moderately while generally maintaining margins," said Munster.

Be sure to keep an eye out for our coverage of the earnings report later today on the front page, with additional analysis from the call on Infinite Loop.

While the game didn't make quite the splash that Epic was hoping for, Unreal Tournament 3 was still a very solid improvement and the grand coming out party of a publicly-accessible Unreal Engine 3 editor lead to some pretty cool content following the game's release. Epic has now announced that a "major expansion" for the game is coming in the hopes of breathing new life into the title.

Details are few, but Epic vice president Mark Rein told Eurogamer that the expansion is already in the works at the behest of the game's publisher, Midway. "Midway is still very much the publisher of Unreal Tournament 3," said Rein. "In fact, we're working together on a major expansion to Unreal Tournament 3, that we expect will excite and grow our UT3 customer base which, incidentally, now numbers over a million units sold-through world-wide."

For as high-profile a title as Unreal Tournament 3, hitting a million units sold worldwide nearly a year after release isn't exactly indicative of massive success, but it's good to see the game is still alive and kicking. There's no word on the content, price, or release of the expansion, though previous content packs have been free, but we'll be keeping our eye on this story as it develops.

As tends to be the case with games adapted to film, the recently released Max Payne movie was almost universally critically panned. That of course didn't stop anyone from seeing the movie, as it topped the North American box office last week, raking in an estimated $18 million. But you know who isn't impressed? 3D Realms, who oversaw development on the games. Scott Miller, CEO of 3D Realms, has expressed his disappointment with the film, specifically in the way the story was handled. Spoiler warning: the next few paragraphs discuss some important plot points in detail.

"There are several fundamental story flaws...in the film that have me shaking my head in bewilderment," Miller told Edge. Specifically, Miller talks about a point in the film in which one of the bad guys, drug dealer Jack Lupino, is "lamely killed by one of the film's non-action characters...The entire time we're told that this drug makes 1-in-100 people super-human, yet Lupino doesn't demonstrate this in the least. It should have taken a hail storm of bullets to bring him down, plus it should have been Max that kills him."

Miller also has a problem with the way the story was paced, as the film makers decided to withhold a crucial scene until well into the movie. "A big problem with the film is that we do not really know what is driving Max until we see the flashback scene showing him coming home and finding his family murdered," he explained. "In the game, we put this scene right at the front of the story for a reason! Saving this scene until mid-film is a narrative blunder, because the audience needs to empathize with Max in order to like him and understand what drives him."

It's not really a surprise that Max Payne turned out to be disappointing. Even with a good cast, it's becoming increasingly clear that game narratives don't often translate well into film. Maybe Miller will have better luck when Duke Nukem makes his way to the big-screen.

A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed the new fring App Store iPhone VoIP client. Today, fring announced its joint project with Austria's mobilkom (German language site). In what's possibly a precedent-setting move, fring will create a custom version of its VoIP client for a traditional carrier.

fring's press release states that "[t]his is the first time a leading network operator has integrated an open mobile VoIP communication and mobile internet community offering into their business model, and represents a sea change in the relationship between traditional mobile carriers and mobile internet communications offerings such as fring."

VoIP is widely offered by traditional carriers (for example, Comcast's Digital Voice service, which replaces land lines) but VoIP is still a minor player in the mobile arena.

The Nokia fring client
will provide mobile VoIP
in Austria

Today's announcement is built specifically around the Nokia S60, as you can tell from the screenshot shown here. An iPhone client is in progress, according to Roy Timor-Rousso of fring. He writes, "In terms of priorities and schedules, this is an ongoing process to be defined with our counterparts in mobilkom."

Like any standard fring clients, the mobilkom version will be able to use any Internet connection, whether it be GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, WiFi, or WiMax. It remains up to mobilkom to set out the terms and limitations on how it can be used on their network. As far as the US iPhone goes, Apple's current American policy boils down to this: VoIP is okay if used on WiFi, but keep it the heck away from cellular data.

Today's announcement will probably not affect US users on AT&T in any real way, though; the AT&T data network is already burdened and trying to keep up with large and growing iPhone data demands. Adding minute-saving VoIP to that mix could push AT&T over the edge as it's already trying to balance increasing iPhone-based data requests with its limited data infrastructure.

If you ever wondered how games get leaked early, well, here is one of the ways. Rodney Gray, an employee at Technicolor, a company that packages game and DVD discs, was caught with more than $100,000 worth of stolen games and movies.

Among the 900 discs were copies of two upcoming games, Gears of War 2 and Fable II. Gray was pulled over for several driving violations—including driving with a suspended license—when he was discovered with a bag of 31 games. He then admitted to police that he worked at Technicolor and planned to sell the stolen merchandise. Of the discs found, about 97 were the two stolen Xbox 360 games. Police are unsure as to how many copies had been sold by that point. 

In order for piracy to occur, there usually has to be a breakdown at some point during the production process. In this case, it happened during packaging.

Every so often, a Mac rumor comes along that you'd really like to believe, but which doesn't sound terribly plausible. Such is the case with the latest research note from JRPG analyst Lisa Thompson. According to a Barron's report, Thompson says in the note that Apple is "believed" to be working with wireless carrier O2 in order to offer a subsidized MacBook in the UK, as other carriers have started doing with subsidized netbooks.

Yes, Apple did just drop the price of the plastic MacBook to $999, but that doesn't mean the company is suddenly more less likely to sell it to a wireless carrier. In her note, Thompson suggests that a subsidized MacBook would be a bit like a subsidized iPhone, with customers who opt for longer contracts paying less for the device. The move would be similar to offerings from other UK carriers, although other carriers have only been subsidizing smaller, cheaper netbooks. Thompson also believes that Apple's profits would actually increase, since the volume would presumably offset the lower price (even with the subsidy).

It sounds great, but towards the end of last month, O2 denied a very similar rumor. If Apple and O2 were indeed discussing a subsidized MacBook, Apple probably would have mentioned the impending price drop to the carrier. As a result, I don't think this rumor is any more true following the notebook event.