That means that high-performance games, previously only able to run on top-notch hardware, will now be able to stream over the Internet to comparatively low-end mobile devices.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has been selling its gaming service for a little more than a year. Up until now, consumers could stream games to their TV, or to a PC or Mac. The games can be purchased, rented for a few days or paid for via a monthly subscription. The mobile version will work the same way.

The apps will be available as soon as today in both the iTunes Store and the Android Market in the U.S. and the U.K. The app will also be coming to other devices, include the Kindle Fire.

OnLive founder and CEO Steve Perlman said an iPad would never have enough memory to play a 10 gigabyte game.

But OnLive’s service works because the game runs on the company’s server and then streams a compressed version to the device. The service is so efficient, in fact, that it will work not only on Wi-Fi but also on high-speed 4G wireless networks, like AT&T’s or Verizon’s LTE. OnLive worked closely with AT&T, which is one of its investors, to ensure its service would operate seamlessly.

At launch, the mobile app will have a catalog of about 25 games, including one of this year’s top sellers, Rockstar’s L.A. Noire, which is a 1940s Hollywood crime thriller.

Perlman said three categories of games will be available on mobile devices. The first category will be games like L.A. Noire that have been adapted to use the touchscreen. The second will be games that will use a virtual controller that appears on the tablet’s screen. And the third category will require an OnLive wireless controller, because the games require too many buttons to control. The controller will cost $50.

The number of games that have been fully adapted will be limited initially, but nearly all of OnLive’s 200 titles will be playable on a mobile device in some manner.

Because OnLive’s service is stored in the cloud, users will be able to pause a game on one platform, and then pick up on a mobile device where they left off.

One inconvenience of the iPad app is that all games will have to be bought on the PC, because of Apple’s policies on in-app purchases.

Perlman said it’s unclear what the demand will be for a mobile service like this, but that it has the potential to disrupt the way console games are traditionally sold.

“Before OnLive, games were a form of software and a type of application,” he said. “They were subject to piracy and hardware requirements, but now it’s music or movies. It doesn’t matter what the performance of the device is.”

A consortium of six companies last month paid $4.5 billion to acquire a portfolio of 6,000 patents auctioned by the bankrupt Canadian telecom equipment maker Nortel Networks, thwarting Google’s interest. The final amount, five times Google’s original $900 million “stalking horse” bid, stunned observers and raised concerns about how the consortium intended to use them.

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A game called Angry Birds is dominating the best-selling-applications charts for Apple’s iPhone with a simple, whimsical premise: Players turn different species of scowling birds into projectiles with which to crush a collection of grunting pigs scattered around various ramshackle structures. More than 12 million copies of Angry Birds have been sold since it went on sale late last year, most of them 99-cent downloads for iPhones and iPod touches, according to Rovio Mobile Ltd., the Finnish company that created the game.

Why do smart people love seemingly mindless games? Angry Birds is one of the latest to join the pantheon of “casual games” that have appealed to a mass audience with a blend of addictive game play, memorable design and deft marketing. The games are designed to be played in short bursts, sometimes called “entertainment snacking” by industry executives, and there is no stigma attached to adults pulling out their mobile phones and playing in most places. Games like Angry Birds incorporate cute, warm graphics, amusing sound effects and a reward system to make players feel good.

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Two lower courts struck down the law as an unconstitutional restriction on freedom of speech.

How the high court rules could affect videogame makers such as Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), producer of “Call of Duty,” and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.’s (TTWO) Rockstar Games, which makes “Grand Theft Auto.” The case could also have implications for the broader entertainment industry, specifically for producers of violent movies and television shows.

Last week, the court took a broad view of the First Amendment when it struck down a federal law banning depictions of animal cruelty. The court said the law was too sweeping in restricting speech.

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This time the outcry is over the Nintendo DS-bound Chinatown Wars and its drug-dealing minigame, which offers players the chance to try their hand at a little narcotics trafficking. “We wanted to have a drug-dealing minigame in lots of the GTA games,” said Rockstar vice president Dan Houser. “We played with it a little in ‘Vice City Stories,’ because it worked really well juxtaposed with the main story. It works well with what GTA is, with driving around the map, and it gives you another thing to think about–another layer or piece of the puzzle to keep you motivated.”

And another layer to add to the GTA marketing campaign, which clearly thrives on controversy.

To keep you abreast of tech news while he’s away, we’re compiling a daily digest of 10 must-read tech stories. We’re calling it the Tech 10 and it appears below.

1. Music to their ears: SoundExchange, the recording-industry group that has been in a protracted battle with Internet radio companies, has reached a deal with them on royalties. The Associated Press reports that SoundExchange would cap fees at $50,000 a year for Webcasters offering more than 100 channels–down considerably from the much higher per-channel tax it had sought to impose.
2. Playing catch-up with YouTube, Yahoo plans to revamp its video portal. Miguel Helft of the New York Times writes that Yahoo will consolidate the Internet site’s somewhat messy video interface into a more interactive one enabling users to view and share videos and compile playlists. Of the plans, Helft quotes Mike Folgner, general manager of Yahoo Video: “We’re going to make it a more cohesive experience. Video is going to be everywhere on Yahoo.”



3. A teenage hacker from New Jersey has picked the lock that links the iPhone to AT&T. According to the Associated Press, 17-year-old George Hotz, using a complicated procedure involving both software and soldering, unlocked an iPhone from AT&T and was using it on T-Mobile’s network, freeing the handheld for calls overseas using carriers outside the U.S. After announcing the feat on his blog, Hotz put the reconfigured iPhone (pictured, left) up for sale on eBay.
4. Google goes Gotham? Bloomberg is reporting that the Internet search titan is in talks to provide online transit guides in New York City and environs. The guides, which are already available in more than a dozen cities, including Dallas and San Diego, show how to navigate transportation systems and could greatly expand Google’s revenue from ad sales to restaurants, hotels and other businesses that serve the nine million commuters in metropolitan New York.
5. IBM may take elements of its Jazz collaboration software open source. According to IDG News Service, the tech giant is considering open-sourcing some of the lowest layers of the framework, which makes software development easier, so people could “build on the kernel,” said a member of the Jazz management committee.
6. Sweet juice: Sony has developed a battery that uses sugar as an energy source. TMCnet reports that test cells of the battery have 50 milliwatts, so far the world’s highest electrical output for the so-called passive bio batteries. Sony engineers proved they work by putting four together to power a Walkman.
7. And in an industry where power is everything, Via Technologies has produced a processor that consumes a maximum of one watt of electricity. Reporting on the development, PC World notes that the Eden ULV chip will be used in mobile devices and embedded applications.
8. Manhunt 2, the sequel to Rockstar Games’ eponymous video-game gorefest, got a break in the form of a less-severe rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board. According to CNET blog Crave, the board changed the rating from “adults only” (the equivalent of an NC-17 for video games) to an M-for-mature after Rockstar eliminated some ultraviolent content. The new rating means that companies like Sony and Microsoft will allow the game to run on their players, clearing the way for sales pegged to Halloween.
9. Decrying its role in “promoting” child prostitution, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is calling on online classified-ad service Craigslist to police itself better, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In a letter sent this week, Franklin asked the Web site to toughen warnings for personal ads and pages that offer erotic services and to delete postings advertising sexual services for sale. An Atlanta vice officer claims that Craigslist and similar Web sites facilitate 85% of the sexual trysts men in Atlanta make with underage youths.
10. News this week of a study that linked gender with color preference prompted Shiny Shiny (the self-described “girl’s guide to gadgets”) to assemble a selection of pink laptops. We eyed the Hello Kitty model (pictured here) and concurred that this was indeed a laptop that only a girl (of either sex) could love.

–posted by Associate Editor John Sullivan