F1: Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying Report

It's probably getting kind of old, but a Red Bull has once again claimed pole position this year. This time Sebastian Vettel is the one who managed to break teammate Mark Webber's two previous pole positions, while also beating the two McLarens piloted by Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button to start from the first row of the Hungaroring circuit on Sunday.

The two main contenders for the pole position seemed to be Vettel and Hamilton, and that’s the way the fight ended, with Button and the two Ferraris behind them. However, it’s Felipe Massa who will start from the second row relegating Fernando Alonso, who celebrated both his 30th birthday and 30th race with the Scuderia team, to fifth place.

Mark Webber in the second Red Bull couldn’t match the pace of the front runners, ending up more than half a second slower than Vettel in sixth place.

Mercedes GP put in a solid performance with Nico Rosberg in seventh and Michael Schumacher in ninth place on the grid. It’s just that the 7-times World Champion and the man who has broken almost every record in Formula 1 was beaten (by 0.8 seconds) by his team-mate, but also by a Force India, that of Adrian Sutil.

Juno Temple Stars in Abe Sylvia's Film 'Dirty Girl'

"Danielle, nobody likes a dirty girl." Today's indie trailer via Apple is for something a little dirty, the indie Dirty Girl starring Juno Temple as, well, a dirty girl. It's actually a roadtrip coming-of-age movie, but it doesn't really seem like it, at least not really an interesting one. Despite starring the rather talented Juno Temple, as well as Milla Jovovich, William H. Macy, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam and Jeremy Dozier, this doesn't look good at all. It received dismal reviews at TIFF last year, but it might interest or connect with a few of you, and I wanted to feature it anyway. Check it out if you think Juno Temple will impress you.

Watch the Weinstein Company's official trailer for Abe Sylvia's Dirty Girl:

You can also download the Dirty Girl trailer in High Definition on Apple

It's 1987 and Danielle (Juno Temple), the 'dirty girl' of Norman High School in Oklahoma, is running away. With her is chubby gay Clarke, a bag of flour called Joan and a Walkman full of glorious 80's tunes.
Dirty Girl is both written and directed by American filmmaker Abe Sylvia, a graduate of UCLA making his feature directing debut after the shorts My Mother's Hairdo and Feltch Sanders, and commercials work for Svedka. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Fest last year, where it was picked up by The Weinstein Company for distribution. Dirty Girl is now set to arrive in limited theaters October 7th this fall. Curious?

Audi R8 Tries Out Gulf Oil Livery

Joining our long list of cars of all sizes and sorts wearing the classic racing colors of Gulf Oil is this Audi R8 coupe, which was spotted at the Mediterranean town of Marbella in Spain.
While it's still no Porsche 917, the famed baby-blue and orange scheme looks much better on the Audi R8 than on some of the more recent Gulf Oil editions we've seen lately including the Mercedes-Benz CLK AMG DTM Edition.
For more photos of the Audi R8, follow the break to check out the gallery.

SLR Lens Adapters for iPhone

iPhone SLR Mount: $249
It seems fair to say that Apple's iPhone is at least as much a camera as it is a phone. It's no single-lens reflex (SLR) camera, however, which is where Photojojo's new iPhone SLR lens mount comes in. This new case-adapter combination lets users mount a Canon or Nikon SLR lens to the iPhone 4, turning the ubiquitous mobile device into the high-powered camera of every aspiring photographer's dreams.
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Constructed of sturdy aluminum, the iPhone SLR Mount features a tripod attachment and two strap loops, so it can be hung around the user's neck just like a real digital SLR camera. The Nikon version is an F-mount adapter that works with all Nikon lenses; the Canon version is an EF-mount adapter that works only with EOS lenses. Either way, a special UV filter is also included. Telephoto, wide angle, macro and fixed 50mm lenses can all be attached, giving users virtually infinite choices along with true manual focus and a powerful depth of field.
Photojojo's lens mounts are due to ship in mid-August. The only catch? Because neither they nor the iPhone has a mirror inside, users have to rotate the photos they take using an editing app. Small price to pay for some serious iPhoneography muscle.

Bianchi Pista Concept 2005

Frame / Size / Year:
Bianchi Pista Concept / 57cm / 2005

Handlebars / Stem:
Deda Pista / Thomson X2 90mm

Fork / Headset:
Bianchi / Tange

Front Wheel / Hub / Rim / Tire:
Mavic Ellipse / Continental Gatorskin

Rear Wheel / Hub / Rim / Tire:
Mavic Ellipse / Continental Gatorskin

Crankset / Bottom Bracket:
Sugino 75 / Sugino 75

Saddle / Seat Post:
San Marco Concor Supercorsa / Thomson Elite

Pedals / Chain:
MKS Sylvan W/ Toshi Double Straps or Look Keo 2 Max Carbon / Izumi V Super Toughness

Gearing / Chainring / Misc.:
48, 49 x 16 , 17 / Sugino Zen 49t, Sugino 75 48t 

Binatone ReadMe Mobile

Binatone has unveiled a bonkers device that it is describing as an eBook reader, but what we'd call a tablet / ereader / personal organiser hybrid - the Binatone ReadMe Mobile.

The ReadMe Mobile really is a case of a jack of all trades in that it specialises as an eBook reader - although the colour screen isn't E-Ink so there are reflection issues - but it also offers an Android OS (2.1, Éclair), Wi-Fi connectivity, web browsing, email and media playback. There's also 2GB of storage for your digital shizzle.
There's no touchscreen though - the display is a 7-inch, 800x400 one. Controls are via the BlackBerry-like trackpad and the full physical QWERTY. This is not only something that we don't think we've seen before on an Android tablet - it also makes for a wacky looking device.
Still, at £129, it's a device that may find a market amongst more budget conscious tech fans, who aren't too bothered that it may be spreading its features a little too thinly. Battery life is also a bit of issue - 6 hours "reading time" is stated.
The Binatone ReadMe Mobile is out now - as is the updated version of the iHomePhone packing "a whole range of enhancements". The iHomePhone 2 is priced at £99
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Calibur 5 quick play preview

Soul Calibur 5 sees the triumphant return of one of the most adaptable and easy to get into fighting games out there. With revamped graphics, added characters and an entirely new storyline, it looks to be an exciting successor to a fan favourite.
The new game is set 17 years after the original and acts as a true sequel to last in the series, bringing with it all the bizarre characters and somewhat shall we say Japanese approach to storytelling. The Soul Swords are now single handed affairs, all of which is yet to be explained but will likely make sense once we learn about the entirely new storyline.
Whilst we didn't get a chance to actually play the game ourselves, we were treated to a series of battles fought out in what it the most up to date version of code that Soul Calibur 5 exists in. The first thing that struck us was just how incredible the lighting engine looked, which has clearly seen a lot of work. Character models have highly detailed shadows, interrupt lighting in the background and the female cast in particularly are subjected to all sorts of shininess.

On the subject of characters, the Soul Calibur cast has been updated with new male and female fighters. We got to take a look at Zwei, Natsu, Patrokolus and Sophitia. All of them had their own unique abilities, with Zwei being a personal favourite, making us think a bit of Noob from Mortal Kombat, firing out what looked like ghosts at the opposition.

In terms of the fighting itself, things are definitely keeping to the Soul Calibur tradition of big weapons and painful looking combos. We witnessed series favourite Ivy smash Mitsurugi to pieces using her chain whip and take full advantage of the new Street Fighter style moves that break up gameplay with a powerful attack and animation.
Button mashing may still be commonplace, but there was clearly a wider range of moves and a better flow to the fighting. Then again we didn't get to give things a go ourselves, so it may be that the game handles differently with a controller in our 'expert' hands.

Sadly our brief demo of Soul Calibur 5 came to an end much quicker than we had hoped, expect plenty more details of the game to emerge as we head towards this years IFA. There is also unfortunately little to go on in terms of a release date other than sometime in 2012.

Namco Bandai's games line-up preview

Namco Bandai has a pretty explosive gaming lineup set for the coming months. Titles like the highly anticipated Dark Souls are set to fill the latter months of 2011, with games like Soul Calibur 5 and Ace Combat Assault Horizon arriving in 2012.
Plenty to look forward to then on the Namco Bandai gaming front, so much so that we thought we would do you a nice little release round up to get all the juicy facts straight on each piece of software. There is of course lots of other games on show from the publisher, but we have decided to focus on the tier one titles that have gotten us really excited.
Ace Combat Assault Horizon
Us lucky 'linters were given a hands-on with the new Ace Combat title at an event this week. Developed by Project Aces and set for release on 14 October, it could mean a return to form for the console flight series, from our brief play through it definitely seems that way.

The game itself is totally manic, with constant beeping and buzzing hurled at you as you spin (and crash..a lot) your plane about the screen. There is also a brilliant dogfight mode which is a novel take on air to air gaming combat. Once you have a plane locked, the camera will zoom in and you can begin hurling bullets and missiles at the aircraft in your sights. It is pretty impressive, particularly the machine-gun sound effects and oil and debris flying at the screen.
Unfortunately we didn't get a go on any of the new helicopter combat set to feature in the full version of the game, nor did we get to try out multiple aircraft. Shame really as the demo definitely got us excited.

Story-wise things have been penned by best selling military author Jim DeFelice. Set in 2015, it sees the game's characters attempting to deal with a guerrilla insurgency in Africa. Problem is these guerrillas have developed a new type of super weapon and aren't afraid to use it. This then gives rise to a global aircraft based race to secure the weapon, with your character Bishop playing the lead role.
Expect more on Ace Combat Assault Horizon as details emerge, but from what we played it is definitely looking tempting.
Inversion
Inversion was the second title that Namco Bandai let us have a go at. The game is essentially Gears of War with a twist, adding gravity and vertical as well as horizontal gameplay.
Lead character David Russel has lost his daughter in a city invaded by evil gravity controlling aliens. He sets out with his partner (Russel is a cop) Leo to try and find her, on the way he picks up the GravLink, which allows him to control gravity as well as push and pull objects. Think of a combination of Half Life 2's gravity gun and the grappling hook from Just Cause 2.

From what we played, the graphics were definitely the highlight (check out the screenshots). The actual gravity gameplay element fell behind to us just blasting through waves of enemies. There is so many bullets flying about on screen and enemies to destroy that it is difficult to actually take advantage of the GravLink. This may just be because we weren't particularly good at the game, but things right now didn't feel like they pushed us to use the leads gravity powers. This is a shame because when it worked it was truly awesome, flinging enemies into the air, dragging them towards you and then popping their heads with high gravity mode.

One gameplay element we particularly like was the idea of using gravity to create a sort of gecko-like gameplay where you could stick to walls and shoot down on enemies below. Walls were transitioned via blue gravity pads that allowed us to jump between vertical and horizontal. The developers clearly have some innovative level design ideas and while we barely scratched the surface of this part of Inversion, it is definitely something we want to play more of.
Expect Inversion to hit shops on 10 February 2012.
Dark Souls
Dark Souls is the new game to come from developer From Software who penned sleeper hit Demon's Souls, a tough yet incredibly innovative RPG game. The original was an incredible challenge to complete, requiring an online cross-player effort of both versus and cooperative battling.
Dark Souls looks to build on everything the original laid out while making it more accessible for new players. This doesn't mean things are going to be any easier, just don't expect quite the frustration factor of Demon's Souls.

In Dark Souls players are battling to save the lost souls of those stricken by the curse of the undead. You take on plentiful demons of all shapes and sizes in order to get your mits on the Eternal Flame of Life. Keeping up the series's dark approach to design, the world is gradually being enveloped in an eternal night, which the player must fight to keep at bay.
Castles, catacombs and general nastiness are all typical of the game design. Graphically things have also taken a jump with what looks like a less washed out colour palette than the original as well as a better lighting engine.

The Beacon Fire is a particularly bonus, allowing you to place a recovery, restart and save point anywhere in the world. Unlike the original, this should in theory make progression a lot easier and death a lot less irritating.
A limited edition version of the game will also ship on 7 October and will include things like a making of DVD, soundtrack and artwork.
Ridge Racer Unbounded
Ridge Racer is a game series with a serious fan base, many of whom will be upset to see the change of direction taken with Unbounded. It is however not a total successor to Ridge Racer 7, instead more an offshoot or attempt at trying something different by developer Bugbear.
The game is focussed solely on extremely aggressive driving and sees you smashing through the streets of Shatter Bay, the in-game city.

The game is also heavily reliant on a clever physics engine that, not unlike things like Battlefield's Frostbite, allows you to carve a path through the race track. Cars can smash through solid concrete, parts of buildings and even bridges and statues to try and hinder other racers or speed themselves up via shortcuts. Things like jumps, drifting and ramming will cause your boost meter to fill which can then be transformed into destruction of either environment or cars.

Ridge Racer Unbounded doesn't feature any true to life vehicles, instead things like the series classic Angel and Devil cars are included. Tracks are to range from things like downtown inner city environments to docklands and constructions sites.
Expect Ridge Racer Unbounded to arrive some time in 2012.
That's it...Why no Soul Calibur you ask? That's because its so special we have gone and given it its very own separate hands-on.