Software maker Basis said it already has “taken swift legal action” to protect its “BBx” trademark. “Research In Motion’s press release announcing a new Blackberry operating system named “BBX” is causing great confusion for the worldwide Basis community and could potentially harm Basis’ reputation for enabling cross-platform application development,” a Basis press release states.

Basis CEO Nico Spence said that there is an installed base of “thousands” of Basis products that use the BBx prefix. “Ironically, Basis’ BBx may aid RIM in its quest to grab a share of the application market for mobile devices in that any application created with Basis’ BBx for the Android or iOS mobile devices will also run on BlackBerry products.”

However, Basis does not offer a product that is called “BBx”, but uses the “x” to signify a generalization of the platform in a similar this letter is used to describe a range of version number in software such as “Firefox 3.x”. Basis current BBx version is “BBj”. BBj is an object-oriented development environment for Oracle’s Java Virtual Machine.

Still, it seems reasonable to be concerned about RIM BBX, even if we know that Basis is riding the wave and will not only see damage at this point, but an opportunity to give its software exposure it otherwise would not have.

Microsoft filed a patent that would provide a solution for those who are concerned about all the germs populating a touch screen surface. Microsoft uses ultraviolet light to sterilize the surface of a screen.

It is widely known that devices such as keyboards and computer mice are the least hygienic places in any household. As we are replacing keyboards with touch screens, those greasy screen surfaces could become prominent transfer stations for bacteria. A patent filed by Microsoft in April 2010 suggests that an ultraviolet (UV) light source could be used to sanitize touch screen surfaces. The UV light source would be integrated into a device and would be positioned with the backlight and kill germs from the rear side of the touch screen.

The patent envisions the technology to be used not only for personal computing devices, but especially devices that are exposed to different people, such as ATM screens at banks, checkout stations in grocery stores as well as kiosks at airports. The technology is designed to be used in combination with a proximity sensor that activates the UV light source when a user is not present – and emit UV light at a wavelength that is suited to sterilize the touch screen.

There was no information in which specific products the technology could become available.

StarCraft 2 fans will be happy to learn that there are tons of game-changers on the way in the game’s upcoming installment, Heart of the Swarm. In an extensive panel discussing multiplayer balance, unit changes and new units, StarCraft 2 game director Dustin Browder, senior designer Josh Menke and game balance designer David Kim revealed new plans that could result in a massive change in strategies.

The panel began with a discussion on the current state of balance in StarCraft 2 multiplayer. As surprising as it may be to some, across all tournament levels there is an even match up between all three races. In the master leagues, the balance is a bit off in some small situations such as Terran vs Protoss in Korea or Zerg vs Protoss in Europe.

Read more…

While Android boss Andy Rubin told an AsiaD audience that smartphone users should talk to people, not to their devices (essentially poking a stick as Apple’s new Siri feature on the iPhone 4S), an Android development team named Dexetra was hard at work creating a rival product called “Iris.”

Sorry Andy, but even the developer community thinks interaction with an Android smartphone would be cool, and it only took Dexetra six to eight hours to create the first alpha version. Of course, Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” will feature a much-improved voice input engine, but whatever. Read more…

Want to get a long hard look at Counter-Strike: Global Offensive? Now’s your chance to get a full hour’s worth of gameplay and non-stop commentary. It’s Europe versus America at the Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge in New York, bought to you by ESL TV with Joe Miller and Midway. The winners will each receive an Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition CPU and the losers a BenQ XL2410T gaming monitor.

In June at the E3 2011 trade show in Las Vegas, Nintendo proved that the console sector isn’t dead after all, revealing the upcoming launch of the tablet-themed Wii U. Now there are reports that Microsoft plans to follow suit with a revelation of its own two years later.

Unnamed sources speaking to Develop are claiming that Microsoft’s next-generation console, codenamed Xbox Next, will actually launch in 2013 — probably during the holiday season — but it won’t make its first appearance until the E3 show that same year, just months before the retail launch across all main regions. There’s even speculation that it may see an early 2014 release.

“Few in the games business expect Xbox Next to be in stores before the holiday side of 2013 – this Christmas and the next will likely see Microsoft marketing software for Xbox 360, Windows Phone and its Kinect motion controller,” Develop reports.

There are also rumors that Lionhead Studios is working on the next installment in the Fable series called Fable Next which will be a launch title for the next-generation console. There’s also talk that EA already has its hands on an early build of Xbox Next but the publisher has flatly denied the claim (much like studios did with the PSVita – must be common practice to deny everything like the government).

Last week brought reports that a handful of resumes and documents pointed to Microsoft’s next-generation console currently in development, one of which included a LinkedIn profile of Jeff Faulkner, an “Xbox Nex Gen Creative Director.” Although the profile has since been altered, it described him as “Creative Director for Xbox Next Generation, where he guides the vision for Xbox’s User Experience Design across Social Media, User Experience, Entertainment, Gesture and Voice Input, Information Design and Brand and Visual design.”

Cover up the evidence and deny everything.

Still, it probably should come as no surprise that Microsoft is currently hammering away on a new console. But what would be a surprise is if the console is more of the same but with beefier hardware rather than a game-changing device intent on altering how we perceive console gaming. Oh wait that’s Apple’s job, according to Valve.

Sony’s already got the PlayStation Suite on its own Xperia Play smartphone and Sony tablets but the company has said that it is currently ‘in discussions’ to bring the suite to other, third party devices.

Engadget cites Sony’s Kazuo Hirai as saying that the company’s PlayStation division is working to expand the PlayStation Suite platform to a wider range of non-Sony devices. Speaking at the All Things D conference in Hong Kong, Hirai said he wasn’t interested in keeping everything within Sony.

“This isn’t an ecosystem where we want to keep everything within the Sony family,” said Mr. Hirai. “This is not just for Sony devices.”

Though Hirai didn’t mention any specific partners or manufacturers, we’re hoping that this means we’ll be seeing the PlayStation suite on a whole mess of Android smartphones and, more importantly, tablets.

SOURCE via Engadget