Conspiracy Entertainment has just signed a publishing agreement with Epicenter Studios to bring together the Wii-exclusive Real Heroes: Firefighters. But while the title all but screams "fiery action," you'll be quite surprised to learn that it won't be violent at all. So what's in store for you in this game? Read up over after the jump.

This post is for those of you out there who are having difficulties with their significant other. Don't laugh. It really is. No really, we're not kidding... VIA Technologies, Inc., a developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, announced a unique "Couples, Computers & Gaming" event to be held in San Francisco on Saturday, November 11. The event is set to provide a comprehensive look at the interaction of couples and gaming as the industry adapts to create, develop and promote games.

Team members of the all-female professional PC gaming team, girls 0f destruction will give on couples from the audience hands-on training in the skills needed for pro gaming, and probably skills needed getting along with a pro-gamer (male or female). The guests for the event include John Broady of CNET Gamespot, analyst Rob Enderle, and Mary Shuyler, producer of the Desperate Housewives PC game. They will discuss the relationships between women and gaming, advertising, and the future of the industry.

More details on the event after the Jump!

Our article, "The Foundations of Fortress iTunes", covered what the entertainment industry sees as the challengers to Apple's dominance in the digital media download market: SpiralFrog, Zune, PSP and Connect, MP3 cell phones, MySpace and MTV Urge. We forgot to include one possible candidate: Sirius. As in the satellite radio. And just like the other upstars we covered in Part 1, a Wired.com reporter speculated that Sirius is looking like an assault on Fortress iTunes, too.

Remember Sirius' Stiletto 100 portable satellite radio and MP3 player that we featured last month? The company also announced an online subscription - "satellite-free" - service called Sirius Internet Radio (SIR). As mentioned in Part 1, iPod and iTunes were the perfect partners to capture an entire market for Apple. Yeah, well SIR isn't iTunes. The latter is an online media store. SIR's an internet radio service that streams CD-quality music and selected talk channels.

Enter Yahoo! Music, one of the partners of Stiletto's manufacturer, Zing. Stiletto 100 will reportedly work in conjunction with SIR and Yahoo! Music so that listeners can choose to purchase-download the song they're listening to. As announced by Bob Law, senior VP of Sirius, "The market for digital audio on-the-go is exploding. We are working with Zing to expand the availability of Sirius content on new platforms and bring the best in satellite radio programming to an increasingly mobile audience."

In other words, they're making Sirius and the Stiletto into an iTunes-iPod teamup of sorts.


And there's more after the jump: guess where the CEO of the Stiletto's manufacturer worked before.

Sirius Satellite Radio held a preliminary showing in New York of its new products namely Stiletto models 100 and 10, Starmate4, Starmate3, Sportster3, and Sirius Stratus. Photography was prohibited at the said event, so bear with us if we're not able to provide you with pictures...yet. Below is a rundown of the six products shown at the press event along with the stuff that you need to know:

Stiletto 100 and 10:
Both Stiletto models are deep-black in color, have a touch-sensitive wheel at the bottom and a large color display screen. Both can download and store MP3 and WMA files, and are capable of playing live broadcasts. The two Stilettos are powered with two lithium-ion batteries; the full-size one allows four hours of live satellite radio listening and up to 20 hours of pre-stored content listening. The slim version has only half the capabilities of the full-size one.
Differences: Stiletto 100 (worth $349) offers 100 hours of storage capacity and is WiFi capable, while Stiletto 10 ($249) only offers 10 hours of storage with no WiFi support. The Stiletto models 100 and 10 will be shipped off in September and October respectively.

Sportster3:
- slim design with rotary tuning knob and large buttons
- doesn't have Replay functionality unlike Sportster4
- comes with a vehicle power adapter, remote, vehicle antenna and dock, and suction cup mount
- will be available in September and sold at $119.99.

Starmate4:

- ultra-slim form-factor but has wide-screen display that allows up to five lines of text

- can replay up to 44 minutes of content and can pause, rewind and fast-forward

- comes with the receiver, vehicle power adapter, remote, vehicle antenna, vehicle dock and vehicle mounts upon purchase

- will be available in October and sold at $119.99.

Starmate3:

- has all of Starmate4's features except for replay capability

- comes with the receiver, vehicle power adapter and antenna, remote, vehicle dock and mounts.

- will be available in October and sold at $99.99

All three will feature SIRIUS' GameZone, GameAlert, One-touch Jump, S-Seek.

SIRIUS Stratus:

- will be available in October and sold at $59.99

- has 10 button presets, direct entry tuning, a three-line display, one-touch jump and large buttons

- also has direct channel access and parental controls

- built-in wireless FM transmitter, FM frequency shortcut button, and a real time clock

- comes with the receiver, vehicle power adapter, magnetic antenna, and dash and vent mounts.

All these products will use a common docking configuration - the same connector as Sportster4 are expected to hit the stores by September and/or October.