Neowin.net

Sony has agreed to edit a video game which shows its central character posing as a BT employee and gunning down police officers.

The game maker is responding to complaints from telecom giant BT which did not want its name and livery associated with the violent scenes.

The offending PlayStation 2 title, The Getaway, puts players in the role of a London crook carrying out missions on behalf of a gangland boss. The section of the game that BT objects to will be removed from future releases which will be in stores within 12 days.

Since its release on 11 December in the UK, The Getaway has proved hugely popular. It is thought to have sold more than 250,000 copies over the Christmas season.

The game's central character, Mark Hammond, drives around the mean streets committing crimes to meet the demands of crime boss Charlie Jolson who has kidnapped Hammond's son. In one mission the gun-toting Hammond must steal a BT van and then raid a police station to rescue another character. Technology news site The Register reported that BT was also worried that the game might incite attacks on its engineers.

The game has won praise for depicting central London in exacting detail.

News source: BBCi

Chief Executive Steve Jobs is also seen as making a major push to encourage the Mac faithful at the trade show here to upgrade to its latest operating systems, OS X.

Apple declined to comment on its announcements for Macworld.

WOZNIAK BACK AT MAC
The slick operating system, which has drawn reviews praising its stability and user-friendliness, will be touted by none other than Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in a panel discussion entitled, "The Move to Mac OS X," said IDG World Expo, the firm that produces Macworld and other trade shows.

More sales of Mac OS X mean more software revenue for the company, and consumers may be enticed to buy the latest and fastest Mac computers to take advantage of OS X. Analysts said that a good goal would be to push the percentage of Mac computers using OS X past 50 percent.

Many have been expecting an announcement for some time about its next-generation G5 microprocessor, the brains of a computer, but analysts said Apple has not yet made a decision about whether to continue to get its processors from International Business Machines Corp. or even to move to processors from Intel Corp..

"The existing processor is running out of steam and Apple will make a processor change in the next 12 months," Enderle said. "So expect product announcements based on that new processor next year, because they'll move either to Intel or to the IBM version of the PowerPC."

The current PowerPC chip is made under a partnership between IBM and Motorola Inc..

"It seems unlikely they would be able to announce such a move now," Enderle said.

Seeking to expand its strategy of making and selling computer-linked products and software it sees as central to the "digital lifestyle," Apple also just this week launched its iSync 1.0 software.

The software enables the synchronization of personal information management applications among Macs and a myriad of gizmos, including PDAs and mobile phones.

Apple's strategy has also been to make innovative, bold computer designs -- such as the flat-panel iMac and the original iMac, which debuted in 1998 and sported an all-in-one design with a translucent case and berry colors -- which consumers will be willing to pay more for than PCs using Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system.

"What they have been doing and what they intend to continue to do is win at what I call the Milanese Fashion Game," Kay said. "They come out with some extremely cool products, but at a somewhat higher price comparatively, but still cool enough that people will buy them."

In terms of Apple's market share, not much has changed in recent years, Kay said. Apple's worldwide share of the personal computer market is between 2 percent and 3 percent, and between 4 percent to 5 percent in the United States.

In October, Apple, which is based in Cupertino, California, reported its first quarterly net loss in nearly two years, hurt by investment losses, and warned that it did not expect strong holidays sales for the PC industry.

Apple is scheduled to report its fiscal first-quarter results after the close of regular U.S. trading on January 15.