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Call of Duty Elite for mobile, the companion to the companion Call of Duty experience, is coming to iOS tomorrow and Android next week, MacRumors reports. And it’ll bring a few interesting control options with it. Inside the app, you’ll be able to check your stats and other players’ stats, hit up after action reports, scope map information, track your challenge progress, and modify your loadouts all without ever having to look at your console.

While that’s a ton of cool support, fans will inevitably be noting what’s missing. In a conversation with Joystiq, Beachhead Studios Chacko Sonny said Beachhead learned a a few things about Elite’s stunningly bad launch, so it won’t be tossing out features until it knows they’re “at the level” fans actually want.

Speaking to the MacRumors about future features, Sonny said:

“We view this as the foundation. We want to hear from the community: how do they use this? What parts do they like? What parts aren’t as useful? We want to drive additional development going forward from people who play the game every single day. That’s going to help us deliver a better set of iterated features going forward, and for the forthcoming tablet version as well.”

During the rocky launch, we’ve all kinda gave up on Elite. The release of the mobile app definitely gives us reason to give it another shot, so we will. Tomorrow!

[via MacRumors]

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Hot off the presses of CES comes two new products from ION: A redesigned version of the iCade that drops the surrounding cabinet, as well as a mobile version for the iPhone and iPod touch. Check it out:

ION has yet to release pricing or more specific release dates than “2012″ for the redesigned iCade, but the iCade Mobile will hit in Q2 for $100. Hopefully we’ll get some hands-on time at CES this week.

Update: Engadget, as noted by MacRumors, has updated their post on the new iCades with hands-on video of the handheld iPhone version, dubbed the iCade Mobile. Also, it looks like the pricing for iCade Mobile was incorrect, and the unit should be launching at $79.99 rather than $100.

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Also noticed at the ION booth at CES is a new product called the iCade Jr. The iCade Jr. is similar to the original iCade for the iPad but is a much smaller version that will fit iPhone and iPod touch devices. It retains the faux arcade cabinet design of the original and features 4 buttons on the front deck as well as 4 buttons on the rear panel, as well as a pass-through for charging while in use.

The iCade Jr. unit on display was non-functional, but ION is shooting to have the new unit available this Spring for $49. More photos can be seen at the original Engadget posting.

[via Engadget and MacRumors]

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The adorable Om Nom from ZeptoLab’s Cut The Rope [$.99 / HD / Lite] franchise is cutting loose from the confines of his brilliant puzzle games. Earlier today, the studio put out a fantastic animated short starring the adorable monster in a live-action setting. The core story revolves around Om Nom’s desire to get candy wherever, and the conflict is one between him and a playful tabbby. I can hear The Bearded One moaning in delight from over here.

Cut The Rope is certainly popular and has seen its fair share of merchandising. I think I like this, though, way more than any plush toy or bit of apparel. Make sure to check out the video whenever you have time. It’s awesome (and embedded).

[Via MacRumors]

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Bloomberg reports that Apple has opened up a new class of App Store offerings, allowing game publisher Big Fish Games to offer a monthly subscription package that will allow provide users with access to a number of the company’s games through a dedicated iPad app.

The setup is similar to Netflix Inc. (NFLX)’s streaming application for the iPad. Subscribers can get unlimited access to games such as “Mystery Case Files” and the “Mahjong Towers” series from inside the Big Fish app.

Games played through the subscription service, which are streamed to a user’s iPad from Big Fish’s data centers, will initially require Wi-Fi access to play.

The standard package from Big Fish Games will launch as a $4.99 monthly subscription, increasing to $6.99 per month early next year as more game titles become available for the app. A free ad-supported option limiting play to 30 minutes per day will also be available.

[Originally Posted on MacRumors]

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Mobile analytics firm Flurry today reports on the continuing shift in portable gaming from dedicated devices to smartphones and other multipurpose devices. According to results compiled by Flurry from NPD market research and Flurry’s own mobile app data, Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile operating systems will account for 58% of portable gaming revenue in the United States for 2011, an almost exact flip-flop from 2010 when dedicated device leaders Nintendo and Sony held 57% of the market.

The most striking trend is that iOS and Android games have tripled their market share from roughly 20% in 2009 to nearly 60% in just two years. Simultaneously, Nintendo, the once dominant player, has been crushed down to owning about one-third of market in 2011, from having controlled more than two-thirds in 2009. Combined, iOS and Android game revenue delivered $500 million, $800 million and $1.9 billion over 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Flurry’s data for 2011 is based on estimates for the final two months of the year, but suggests that the rapid growth in gaming on smartphone platforms is showing no signs of slowing. The market dynamics of free or low-cost games sometimes supplemented by in-app purchases and played on multi-function devices versus dedicated gaming devices with relatively high-cost game titles are clearly playing out in favor of iOS and Android. The result has been a surging gaming market increasingly attracting casual gamers willing to spend a few dollars to play on their phones, while established players have seen not only their shares but also their revenue declining each year.

Nintendo has been resisting increasing pressure to bring its games to the iPhone and other platforms, sticking by its long-standing tradition of making its games exclusive to its own hardware. Flurry suggests that the rapidly-shifting landscape of portable gaming may soon bring Nintendo face-to-face with a “Nokia-like” decision whether to jump over to smartphone platforms or watch its business erode away.

[Originally Posted on MacRumors]

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Steve Jobs unveiled iOS 5 back at WWDC this year. Since then, those of us with an iPhone 3GS or later device have been anxiously looking forward to the array of new features and functionality introduced in the update. At last week's Let's Talk iPhone keynote, Apple revealed that today was the lucky day for iOS 5, and if you've got a device that'll run it– Plug it into iTunes, make sure you sync, and mash that update button.

My favorite improvement so far has definitely got to be the entirely revised push alert notification system. That nasty blue popup that interrupts everything you're doing when you get a text message, your Tiny Tower is ready for something, or the zillion other things that used that type of been notification is a thing of the past. Now there's an incredibly elegant notification center where all these alerts are stored, and the actual popups themselves simply scroll in from the top instead of stealing focus.

If you've got an iPad 2 (or are getting an iPhone 4S in a few days), you'll be able to do display mirroring via AirPlay. Doing cool things with this is largely dependent on developers utilizing it in interesting ways, but so far Firemint is doing awesome things with Real Racing 2.

In addition, Game Center has seen a few tweaks. One I'm most excited for is turn-based support. If developers utilize it, Game Center can handle all of the matchmaking and turn data management between players. I've heard from developers that this functionality does not degrade gracefully to previous versions of iOS, but once iOS 5 adoption picks up we could see a rush of great turn-based games now that developers can offload their entire online infrastructure onto Game Center.

iCloud isn't something that should be underestimated. Out of the box it'll keep your device backed up to Apple's data centers and in the event of device failure, loss, theft, or whatever else you'll be able to re-download the entire contents of your phone regardless of the last time you synced. Also, once developers start embracing it, you'll be able to seamlessly sync save game data between devices. As someone who often plays games on both my iPhone and iPad, I can't wait for this to pick up steam.

iOS 5 is an incredible upgrade. I've been running the developer version since the gold master hit last week, and much like the upgrade from iOS 3 to iOS 4, my iPhone 4 feels like a totally new device. iOS 5 boasts a feature list of over 200 additions and improvements, so if you want to know everything that is new and different, check out this huge list over on MacRumors.

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While Apple keynotes themselves are always a lot of fun, I actually almost like the day immediately before the keynote more. Speculation on what's coming reaches a climax, and all you've got to do is wait a day to see who was right and who was wrong. MacRumors provides a rundown of possibilities from the hardware lineup, and subsequent rumors make an iPhone 4S seem even more reasonable as more and more vague leaks of "iPhone 4S" branding appear. Following case leaks and a few other shaky rumors, there hasn't been a very strong indication that the redesigned iPhone 5 is coming at all– At least not yet.

Regardless of what the new iPhone looks like, the addition of the A5 processor should make the iPhone 5 (or 4S) a pocket-sized power-house. Anandtech recently posted a set of benchmarks of mobile GPU's, and the GPU in the iPad 2 is still blowing the doors off the competition:

The rumor mill seems to be in agreement that the "main" feature to be touted at this keynote will be an entire new voice-powered "Assistant." Check out a demo video that MacRumors compiled based on rumors of how it will work:

9to5Mac has an interview with the co-founder of Siri, the company who is believed to be behind this new technology, who has the following to say:

Make no mistake: Apple’s ‘mainstreaming’ Artificial Intelligence in the form of a Virtual Personal Assistant is a groundbreaking event. I’d go so far as to say it is a World-Changing event. Right now a few people dabble in partial AI enabled apps like Google Voice Actions, Vlingo or Nuance Go. Siri was many iterations ahead of these technologies, or at least it was two years ago. This is REAL AI with REAL market use. If the rumors are true, Apple will enable millions upon millions of people to interact with machines with natural language. The PAL will get things done and this is only the tip of the iceberg. We’re talking another technology revolution. A new computing paradigm shift.

So here comes the fun part, what do you think is going to come of tomorrow's keynote? A spec-bumped iPhone 4S? A surprise reveal of an entirely new iPhone 5? New iOS 5 features that haven't been revealed yet like Assistant? New iPod touches to coincide with the iPhone launch? Or will something come out of left field like the iPad 3 with Retina Display, or a million other things that could potentially happen that Apple managed to keep a total secret?

Personally, I think the iPhone 4S is happening but I just can't shake the thoughts of the potential redesign. I'm not sure how credible the weird case "leaks" we've seen are, but the rumored redesign appearing in an Apple app I just can't rationalize in any way other than a design like that is coming. What reason could Apple, a company who historically has put immense importance on a refined user experience place that icon in their own apps? It just doesn't make sense!

I guess we'll find out tomorrow, but, in the time being, we can let our speculation run wild– At least for another 24 hours or so.

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Here's a brief public service announcement of sorts to those of you out there who are still rocking the click wheel iPod and regularly use it to play games– At some point last night they vanished from iTunes entirely. If you haven't already, now is a fantastic time to back up your existing library of click wheel games, as it's really not clear if you'll ever be able to download them again. A free Dropbox account would work perfectly for this, or really any other cloud storage service that you can just upload your games to and forget about.

Reading further into this move by Apple, it seems reasonable to think that this might be the end of the iconic click wheel line of iPods. MacRumors notes that there haven't even been any new releases in the click wheel iPod game library since 2009. The click wheel iPod wasn't updated in last year's iPod event either, casting even further doubt onto the fate of the device. With Apple pushing so hard into cloud-based services and the shocking array of media streaming apps available for iOS devices, it seems reasonable to think that the company feels there's no longer a place for the non-iOS large-capacity traditional iPod.

Seriously though, back up those games.

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The Apple rumor scene is always on fire with speculation of all sorts, but two things of note popped up on the rumor mill that pertain to iOS gamers. First off, lately reports have been flowing in that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) have started a trial run to produce Apple's next generation processor. The A6 is suspected to be revealed in the second quarter of 2012 at the earliest, with a possible inclusion in the next generation iPad.

Specifics on what kind of technology will be included in the A6 is still understandably vague, but it's said to utilize both the 28-nanometer construction process as well as 3D stacking technologies among other high-tech features. Other than that, it's safe to assume the A6 will follow in the footsteps of the A4 to A5 evolution in that it will be faster, have more graphical muscle, and use less power.

In other news, we've suspected that we'll see the new iPhone and iPod touch in the next few months as Apple aligns the release of the iPhone with their previous iPod-centric media events. Currently, the rumor mill is fairly certain that this event will fall on September 7th, which fits well in line with events of previous years which have also been held in early September. It also isn't that much of a stretch to think that iOS 5 will launch at or around the same time as this event.

If you've been looking to upgrade your iOS device, it's probably best to wait at least until early September to see what happens. I'd put my bets on Apple announcing a new iPhone and iPod touch at this event, and have them be available in short order. But, if you need an iOS device now, the iPhone 4 still is a solid device, and a 32GB iPod touch refurb for $179 seems like a great deal.

UPDATE: Since this posting, sources have flat out denied an event taking place in September, and rumors have come to light about both an "iPhone 4S" and an "iPad 3" coming in October. What will actually happen? Who knows, surely there's got to be some kind of bingo card for this.

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Early this morning Bloomberg ran a story regarding the latest Nintendo 3DS price drop fiasco from a side that you don't often hear from: Investors. As you may recall from the last episode of this mobile gaming financial soap opera, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has remained vigilant insisting that as long as he is in charge Nintendo will only be making games for its own line of hardware.

Investors don't agree, especially as Nintendo stocks dip to six-year lows. Specifically, Masamitsu Ohki, a fund manager for a Tokyo-based investment management company explains: “Smartphones are the new battlefield for the gaming industry, Nintendo should try to either buy its way into this platform or develop something totally new.”

The best example of how badly investors want the big N to get involved in smartphone gaming came in early July when we caught wind of a potential Pokemon game coming to the iPhone. This caused Nintendo stock to rocket up the most it had in four months, although gains were quickly lost when Nintendo announced that it was not involved with this Pokemon release.

On this news, Japanese investment firm MF Global FXA Securities Ltd. released a note explaining that “They just don’t get it,” urging investors to sell Nintendo stock "because a management once feted for creative out-of-box thinking have just shown how behind the times they are.” Other financial megaminds are insisting that Nintendo use its $10b cash stockpile to acquire companies to help them position themselves better in the changing face of mobile gaming.

It remains to be seen what if any effect the 3DS price drop will have both on player adoption rates as well as Nintendo stock prices. While the system itself may be cheaper, a lower price point doesn't change the fact that consumers as a whole have gone cold on 3D, one of the main selling points of the system. Similarly, the 3DS software library is still as bleak as it ever was, with no respite on the horizon until Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 hit this holiday season, which seems like forever compared to the fast-paced world of the App Store where great games are released on a daily basis.

Most, if not all of us at TouchArcade grew up on Nintendo platforms and likely wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the NES, the SNES, and the market that Nintendo essentially forged out of the video game crashes of the late 70's and early 80's. It's sad to see a company losing their way, and I'm honestly not entirely sure how Nintendo's dedicated portable gaming devices and $40 games can compete in a world flooded with capable smartphones in hundreds of millions of pockets and enough 99¢ (and free) content available to last a lifetime.

I think we all knew the days of the dedicated portable gaming device were numbered, but I'm not sure any of us expected this would come so soon.

[via Bloomberg, MacRumors]

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