We've got lots of great stuff going on in the iPhone's homebrew community, it's not a good thing to miss out on it if you own an iPhone. Here's another good homebrewed application that may just prove to be more than useful to iPhone users: Torrentula, a BitTorrent client for the iPhone (here's another torrent client for Apple's mobile). Hit the full article for more information.

Someone couldn't hold on to their jammies long enough. 2K Games' BioShock (also coming to Xbox 360) demo for the PC hit BitTorrent long before the official channels could snip the red ribbon. Although this isn't a real surprise to the people who call the Internet their second home, it has opened opportunities for other avid uploaders and free download sites, granting downloaders a good collection of sources to select.

 

The BioShock PC demo weighs in at 1.84 GB of data and is currently seeded by 662 (or so) BitTorrent users. Compared to 6,700 downloaders, however, that's a really small number of sources to leech from. Everyone's trying to jump the gun, hoping to get the demo earlier before the really heavy queueing begins when the demo officially releases.

The early lead is soon going to get cut short, however. Time continues to tick down to the prime hour while those packets trickle in through your LAN port, so players who can't seem to squeeze their way through the seeds might have to settle for the usual limited bandwidth downloads. It'll probably be out the same time Midway's Stranglehold PC demo is out, too.

Feedback from gamers of souped up rigs place the BioShock demo as one hot item to grab, and if you've got a capable system, you might want to give it a try. You'll just have to look for that Torrent site providing the leaked BioShock demo though. Happy hunting!

Joel Durnham of extremetech.com informs that in a panel discussion at the Game Developer's Conference 2007, the idea of PC game viability was discussed by a quintet of industry folks that include: Xbox Live Arcade's David Edery, Electronic Arts' Richard Hilleman, Firaxis' Soren Johnson, Epic Games' Michael Capps, and Obsidian Entertainment's Chris Avallone.

As well as the usual PC gaming competing with console gaming debate that's been ongoing for years now, the effect of piracy on the PC gaming market was discussed. Capps in particular notes that PC Gaming is really falling apart and even though it "killed" them to make Unreal Tournament 3 cross-platform, Epic had to do it.

The reason for going multiplatform, of course, is piracy. Big AAA titles usually get stolen and, as Capps says, the market that would buy a US$ 600 video card also knows how BitTorrent works.

The future of gaming on the PC so far looks like it is set to be dominated by "casual" games and MMOs. Of course there's nothing casual about most casual games since the average Chuzzle/Zuma addict plays for 24 hours a week. MMOs are notable since they can't be pirated - unless of course you steal the source code and run your own illegal server. However, those things are easier to monitor than burned CDs.

They also covered the fact that user-generated game content could be big for the PC since console manufacturers try to wield more control over their products.

They end the discussion by noting that even though things look grim, AAA titles might never die on the PC, and that trends are ultimately hard to predict.

Oh well, so much for the good old days.

PC World, a global computer magazine, has recently named some of the most influential people on the internet. Net heads, here's the top five of a list of those persons who move and shake the internet; we've arranged them from the fifth to the first for emphasis.

5. Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia - Admit it:  whatever piece of information that you get/cite, trivial or otherwise, often  comes from Wikipedia. It's even been cited in more than 100 US court decisions since
2004.

 4. Mike Morhaime, President of Blizzard Entertainment - Some say that there are only two MMO's: WoW, and everything else. Eight million people (and still counting) plus a chance to obtain the Blade of Eternal Justice put this guy at number 4.

3. Bram Cohen, Co founder of BitTorrent - This math and programming whiz kid put up BitTorrent, a way to download large files (like movies) by sharing the burden across hardware and bandwidth.

2. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple -  DRM-free music and internet browsing through iPhone puts him on top - again.

1. Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin, Executives of Google - The most trafficked site on the internet is bound to influence internet users the most.

PC World, naming the Top 50 Most Important People on the Web, has placed Blizzard Entertainment's President Mike Morhaime at the top four spot in the list, sandwiched between Wikipedia and BitTorrent. Largely attributed to their blockbuster MMORPG moneymaker World of Warcraft, Morhaime has become an icon to players and critics alike. This is a big improvement since CNN rated him at the lowest four of the "Top 50 People Who Mattered July 2006".

Because of WoW, eight million online gamers look forward to grinds of several hours online, through different modes of play aside from the ordinary RPG levelling chore. Blizzard has shipped out WoW and The Burning Crusade with services provided in America, Europe and Asia. It grosses US$ 1.5 billion every year, taking it a notch higher than before.

Since he's the fourth most influential dude on the Web, perhaps you frustrated WoW folk can get him to patch up your worries. Or did he just use that influence to serve a nerf sandwich to almost every class out there?

The Wii Experience website was recently contacted by one of their readers, and he had quite a story to tell. The reader's ISP was apparently contacted by the ESA because they found him downloading Nintendo-related material through torrents.

Now, the reader swears it was an old Zelda cartoon, but you never know. The virtual console not only meant the beginning of retro gaming on new consoles, but also ushered in a desire increased security among companies who wanted to maintain their intellectual property rights and not have their titles played illegally by different folks.

That being said, you really should avoid grabbing pirated games. Read the ESA letter after the jump, and stay on the right side of the law, alright?

Have you heard of James Dingsdale before? It might be a shame that we haven't. But in case you have not heard of him as well, don't worry, your secret is safe with us. Anyway, he is actually a British independent film director. Not exactly highly acclaimed, but Dingsdale has the series Sky Raiders under his belt.

Why does this concern us, you wonder now. Apparently, the director just finished filming his next title, Last Evil of the SS, and it will experience a huge simultaneous online release for free. It is expected to go live on streaming media and to be available for direct download (no BitTorrent or P2P whatsoever) in early 2007. Supported formats are 3GP (for mobile phones) and MP4 (for the iPod video and the PSP).

Last Evil of the SS is produced by PBGA Motion Pictures. The film is about a British photographer who lands on a remote Norwegian island in search of a rare bird species. The photographer then finds out that the island is inhabited by the undead remains of a Nazi SS unit. It's worth a try, heck it's free, you have nothing to lose.

With the release of the new Xbox Live Video download service last week, many users have been in their element downloading to their heart's content. But the service which should have been a ray of light to all the video-loving Xbox 360 owners out there turned out to be a little slow. Some users couldn't even download videos and others experienced very slow download speeds, warranting a refund for Video Marketplace users.

This begs the question, how can they make the service better? Many gamers have been thinking that a peer-to-peer (P2P) alternative like BitTorrent would give faster downloads and decrease the load on the Xbox Live Video servers.

Here's Gizmodo's 6-point plan for a faster Xbox Video downloads service:

1. Users can have the option for faster downloads through Live's P2P sharing network.
2. By Microsoft heavily controlling super-seeding (distributing different parts of files evenly), a P2P-shared file could hit an efficient early transfer/share rate.
3. For a portion of your upstream bandwidth (that could be specified by user), gamers are able to download faster (and as a top uploader, you get access to top downloading speeds).
4. Microsoft rewards power users with points per preset upload amount (1gb=50 Live points).
5. Brian Lam stops getting error messages.
6. Unicorns return to Earth.

Of course, the last point is completely irrelevant but you get the jist. A similar P2P system is used by games such as World Of Warcraft, where as you are downloading the new patch some of it is being uploaded from your computer to another. Hopefully Microsoft will listen to the criticisms and improve the Video download service.

Are you guys familiar with PSPBlender? Nope wait, it's not a homebrew application that magically turns your handheld into a kitchen appliance. It is actually a PSP-dedicated online site (PSPBlender.com). And if there's anything remotely magical about it, it's about the recently circulating rumors that the site is actually a fraud.

Accordingly, PSPBlender charge players US$ 37 upon sign-up, promising "unlimited lifetime access to millions of PSP games, movies and music" among other files. Knowing that the offer sounds a bit too good to be true, the site specifically mentions a money back guarantee as well as technical support for dissatisfied customers.

Sounds good, eh? But before you visit their site and sign-up, listen to this first. While we are not familiar ourselves with this PSPBlender thingy, there are currently a good number of PSP users all over the internet expressing discontent and shouting foul. According to them, the site does nothing but makes members pay for access to otherwise free P2P and BitTorrent networks.

Furthermore, these users are saying that they have been trying to contact PSPBlender for the promised refunds but to no avail. We personally aren't really bothered by this, as we have here an unlimited source of great homebrew games and applications provided by you, our loyal readers. Anyways, it is up to you if you still want to give the site a go. Don't say we didn't warn you though.

It's here guys! And it's a heck of a lot quicker than I had anticipated. Remember that mysterious Addon packages CD that we were talking about; the CD that supposedly contained the kboot image for the Fedora Core 5? Well, it's out, and you can download it right now!

The only thing remaining right now is the OtherOS installer which will be released by Sony in the coming few days. And looking at the speed at which the things are being released, I'd give it a week for the void to be filled. For all the lucky Japanese people, you're just a few inches away from having Linux on your PS3s. For our American readers, well, you'll be lucky to get one on launch day. But I guess I can leave that for some other day.

For now, I suggest that all the Linux enthusiasts get started by having the Fedora Core 5 DVD image and this Addon CD downloaded. All you'll need once the PS3 comes out is the OtherOS installer. I'm giving out the link to the Fedora Core 5 DVD download. Personally, I haven't tested Linux on the PS3 yet for obvious reasons. But just to be safe, I'd advise you guys to download the DVD version.

Fedora Core 5 PPC DVD - 3.4GB
HTTP Download: [http://mirror.linux.duke.edu/pub/fedora/linux/core/5/ppc/iso/FC-5-ppc-DVD.iso]
Bittorrent Download: [http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/torrents/bordeaux-DVD-ppc.torrent]
More HTTP Mirrors: [http://fedora.redhat.com/Download/mirrors.html]

Once you have it downloaded, you can download the Addon CD off our servers below. Be advised that you'll still need to wait for the OtherOS installer to show up on the PLAYSTATION 3 Open Platform site. Until then, why not chill out in our Linux forums with other Linux enthusiasts. For more info about PS3 Linux, make sure to check our our previous articles here and here.

Download: [Sony PS3 Cell Linux Addon CD]
View: [PS3 Linux Forums]