As promised, Vodafone has officially announced a November order date for its BlackBerry Storm — November 14, to be specific. Pre-orders are being taken (as they are in the States), so if you want to be in the first batch of Brits to rock this thing, it might be a good idea to go ahead and get on a list lest the throngs of humanity trying to get one on launch day end up harshing your chances. On a related note, Vodafone’s better (or worse) half Verizon has come forward with a surprisingly affordable data plan — GlobalEmail — that’ll allow unlimited web browsing, MMS, and visual voicemail both in the US and a laundry list of countries around the world for $69.99 (or $64.99 when tied to a voice plan). Speaking of voice, Verizon’s also announced a new Global Value Plan that hooks you up with discounted minutes abroad for $4.99 a month. Seeing how the Storm is Verizon’s first handset with global 3G, this new action should see some serious play.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, Microsoft has two release dates for Windows 7: early 2010 according to its corporate PR stooges and sometime around mid 2009 according to everyone else. The reason for the padding is a fairly transparent attempt to avoid the public opinion fiasco resulting from Vista’s chronic delays. Now Ina Fried over at CNET has it from Microsoft Director, Doug Howe, that Windows 7 should be ready for general consumption by the 2009 holidays. According to Fried, Howe’s WinHEC presentation covering Microsoft’s Velocity program to improve PC quality seemed to imply a mid-year Win7 launch. Apparently, a slide said that the Vista Velocity program would run through next spring and then continue on with Windows 7. Afterward, in an apparent direct response to the launch date question, Howe told Fried, “Definitely the holiday focus is going to be on 7.” Using the Vista launch as a guide, that would put the new OS in the hands of OEMs and big business IT staff by mid-year, about 3-months before consumers if Vista’s timeline holds true. This also aligns nicely with Microsoft’s stated plan to launch the public beta early next year followed by a hinted, single release candidate prior to release for manufacturing. So go ahead, just make it official already Microsoft. You had us at pre-Beta.

INDUSTRY figures have slammed the censorship of video games in Australia and say the medium should be considered an art form like film or literature.

The latest title in the popular Silent Hill game series that spawned a feature film in 2006 was refused classification last month after failing to meet the requirements for an MA15+ rating.

The head of Australia’s video game industry body today said the decision reflected an “unfair” discrimination between rating systems for film, literature and games.

“With the average age of gamers being 28, it makes no sense to censor games to a point where they are only appropriate for a 15 year old,” said Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia chief Ron Curry.

“Such censorship would not be acceptable on television, at the cinema or in print, so why apply it unfairly to another entertainment medium?”

Games retailers said they would encourage customers to “wait out” the ban, in the hope that a censored version of the game would be approved for local release a later date – as happened with Fallout 3 earlier this year.

Staff at EB Games and Game stores said customers who had pre-ordered the game would be refunded if the title remained banned.

The Silent Hill franchise is seen as a leader in the psychological horror genre of games. Previous titles in the series have included complex storylines and adult themes, as well as high-impact depictions of violence and horror.

Mr Curry said it was disappointing that a game of such “high quality” was unavailable in Australia.

“Silent Hill, from the beginning of the franchise, has been about exploring the horror genre through interactive entertainment, similar to other mediums such as movies and books,” said Mr Curry.

“To have such a high quality narrative receiving a Refused Classification only further highlights the need for an immediate review of the classification system.”

Mr Curry’s comments come after a recent apology to viewers from the ABC for airing “misleading” information during a debate on video game ratings, in which Q&A host Tony Jones mistakenly said games were exempt from classification.

During the program which aired on July 24 a number of high-profile panel members gave their view on violence in games.

Chief executive of the Australian Industry Group Heather Ridout said she supported the work of controversial photographer Bill Henson and that it was necessary to view art through “a different prism”.

However she said she found violent video games “appalling”.

“Grand Theft Auto was one of the more famous games and seemed to turn everyone into a car thief,” Ms Ridout said.

“Violent games… violence, it breeds violence.”

Prominent gaming journalist James Cottee this week said there seemed to be a “prejudice” against video games that ignored their artistic worth and the sense of achievement and fulfilment that people gained from playing them.

“Games are a legitimate art form just like books or film or anything else. This stigma that they’re somehow tawdry, is just that – an irrational prejudice,” he said.

Cottee said the Silent Hill series was not designed for children and that an adult rating was needed to help people make informed decisions about which games they bought and allowed their children to play.

“They are pretty spooky and atmospheric and aimed at a more mature gamer, or at least one who isn’t easily frightened,” he said.

“That’s why you (should) have higher ratings, so that people can make informed choices.

“I think it’s always unfair when the government makes choices for you and takes things out of your hands.”

Silent Hill: Homecoming is the fourth video game to be banned in Australia this year, after Dark Sector, Shellshock 2: Blood Trails and Fallout 3.

Because there is no R18+ rating for video games, any game that exceeds a rating of MA15+ must be refused classification – making it illegal to sell in Australia.

Mr Curry said he anticipated further public input on the issue.

“The IEAA looks forward to the public consultation on the R18+ classification debate which was promised at the last Standing Committee of Attorneys-General and the redressing of this censorship anomaly,” he said.

The last meeting of Attorneys-General, held in March, concluded that community views were needed to inform the Government’s position on game ratings.

The next meeting is scheduled for early November but no public consultation process has yet been launched.

THE highly-anticipated video game Little Big Planet has been delayed due to fears one song in the game may cause religious offence.

Little Big Planet is a critically-acclaimed, G-rated game that lets players guide a character named Sackboy through a series of levels which can also be created and shared amongst users.

Developed by Media Molecule and published by Sony, the game uses licenced music in the background during gameplay.

One of these tracks, “Tapha Niang” by Grammy-award winning musician Toumani Diabaté, apparently contains lyrics which are quotes from Islamic holy text the Koran.

In an online statement, Sony said it was withdrawing Little Big Planet worldwide after discovering the song’s lyrics.

“It has been brought to our attention that one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qur’an.”

“We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologize for any offense (sic) that this may have caused.”

Sony was allegedly reacting to a letter, published on gaming website Kotaku, saying Muslim gamers found the combination of music and words from the Koran “deeply disturbing”.

The letter translated the offending lyrics as “Every soul shall have the taste of death” and “All that is on earth will perish”.

However the song, from the album Boulevarde de L’independence, may not have been intended to offend anyone.

It was released two years ago by Diabaté - who is also a devout Muslim, according to the Taipei Times. The African musician has never previously been associated with religious controversies.

Sony may have wished to avoid another religious debacle after a notorious run-in with the Church of England last year.

In June 2007, the Church of England was considering legal action over the use of the sacred Manchester Cathedral as a setting for a shootout in blockbuster video game Resistance: Fall of Man.

The church said Sony’s production was “insensitive” given the rate of gun crime in Manchester, and rebuked Sony’s claims it had sought permission to re-create the cathedral.

The Manchester Cathedral controversy came two months after animal rights groups were shocked to see a real goat’s carcass used at the launch party for Sony’s God Of War II.

Sony’s decision to withdraw Little Big Planet has left Media Molecule “shellshocked and gutted”, according to a statement on the developer’s website.

The game, originally set to be released in Australia on Thursday, is now reportedly delayed until early November.

When a major player like Google comes up with a new mobile operating system that’s better than the competition and is totally free, you would certainly expect handset manufacturers to be interested. But there’s interested, and then there’s interested. After lingering for nearly a year in the former category Motorola is now firmly moving to the latter, hiring and headhunting in an effort to build up a 350-person group entirely focused on development of Android phones. The company was one of the original members of the Open Handset Alliance, but seems to have waited for the release buzz from HTC’s G1 before diving in head-first. There’s talk that Nokia (and its “real phones”) may be feeling the vibrations too, allegedly forming an internal team to do the same — on the down low.

As should be clear by now, any talk of a successor to a still relatively new game console should be taken with a hefty grain of salt but, if word from Japan’s Impress is to be believed, it looks like we could possibly be getting a clearer indication of what might be under the PlayStation 4’s non-existent hood. Apparently, unlike the massive shift from the PS2 to PS3, the eventually PS4 will be a decidedly smaller leap, with it relying on a slightly speedier (and, likely, 45nm) Cell processor but not a completely new architecture. That would let Sony keep the cost down considerably while also easing development for the console since, by then, developers should finally have a handle on the PS3’s hardware. To further cut costs, Sony is also said to be considering a switch from the speedy Rambus XDR memory to more traditional DDR3 memory, which could apparently be tied directly to the processor to cut down on latency. Or the PS4 could be powered by a pink slime that feeds on negative energy, you never know.

Here’s an interesting one. That red / black Xbox 360 controller that was showcased back in July is now available to any ole consumer in the US, Canada, Latin America New Zealand and Asia, and it comes bundled with a Play & Charge Kit and red rechargeable battery for $64.99. For whatever reason, Microsoft’s totally missing a golden opportunity to cash in on the holiday shopping season by reserving the green counterpart as some “promotional item.” C’mon guys, is it really that hard to understand how irresistible a red and green gamepad tandem would be in late December?

Look, we’re talking three years from now, anything could happen by then. Singularity, jetpacks, you name it. So a teensy bit of HD graphics from Nintendo doesn’t seem like too much to ask, does it? The filthy-rich company is purportedly showing off just such a Wii-followup to developers and publishers in the industry, who are nicknaming it “Wii HD” for the time being. A true sequel to the Wii, the followup will apparently stick with the core competencies (motion controls), while beefing up visuals (yes, please!), digital distribution, local storage and including backwards compatibility. The only hard evidence cited by What They Play, which originated the rumor, is that Nintendo’s R&D spending has grown dramatically since the launch of the Wii. We’re sure that cash is also being poured into the new DS and a number of other projects, but it’s really not much of a stretch to figure Nintendo’s working on a Wii successor two years into the Wii’s highly-successful life cycle. All we’ve got to say is that a few of these improvements really shouldn’t wait until 2011, and still others are long overdue.

Yeah, the solution seemed pretty obvious to us, and now it looks like Nintendo’s willing to admit it. Nintendo will be solving its little Wii Shop game storage overflow problem by opening up the SD card slot for storing and playing games from (with DRM galore, we’re sure). The update will hit in the Spring of next year, and don’t forget that 2GB maximum when stocking up on the little buggers. It’s not exactly as exciting as a new DS, but we’re really glad Nintendo’s going to do the right thing here, instead of building yet another peripheral to clutter our lives with.

Hello fellow bloggers, I am currently writing to you all from the inside of my car which is outside my house, while using my iPhone