Nokia FB contest: win Lumia 820 + wireless shell + Fatboy charging pillow

"We've challenged students from renowned art and design institutes to take part in the Nokia Lumia 820 Design challenge and to re-imagine the wireless charging shell of the Nokia Lumia 820. Our jury of experts has picked a shortlist from all the amazing designs": click here by February 13 to vote one of the nice entries and you could win a Nokia Lumia 820 Windows Phone 8 smartphone + a Lumia 820 wireless charging shell with the winning design printed on it + a Fatboy wireless charging pillow. 3 of each are up for grabs; good luck!

FFXIV Eorzea Haiku EU contest: win a beta key

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn beta test will start soon. What about trying to win a beta key? If you are resident in a PAL territory country, you can entry the Eorzea Haiku contest. You have time till February 14 to share your Eorzea related Haiku; a Haiku is a Japanese lyric based verse with three lines alternating with five syllables on the first line, seven syllables on the second line and five syllables on the third line. The lines do not rhyme with each other. Click here to peruse all the details and enter. 30 keys are up for grabs; good luck!

Note: don't forget that, if you own a FFXIV Legacy account, you're guaranteed to get a beta registration code before phase 1 starts.

FFXIV A Realm Reborn: new screenshots from benchmark and character creation

Letter from the Producer XLII is now live, and we get to see new screenshots from the upcoming beta test and beta benchmark. "Although phase one will be limited to areas around Gridania like the alpha test, there will be plenty of Full Active Time Events to try, and we've put everything we've got into creating an exciting game experience. It won't be long now before the testing begins, and in my next letter you can expect an announcement for the starting date". Also, a few days after February 10, Letter from the Producer LIVE Part V will air on YouTube.

Elezen female and Lalafell male:

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, quick news

Here are the latest Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn official news:

• When retainers level up, new features will be unlocked; for example, they'll be able to perform some chores, like gathering. Of course, "relying on your retainer alone to gather for you isn't going to cover all of your gathering needs"
• Every player will get their own gathering points, so there will be no need to "compete" for them
• Character creation, Lalafells: custom bust size (female) + more ear style options (male)
• Something similar to random treasure chests (open world) will come with the new FATE system -you can learn a little more about FATE here: click
• More BGM previews incoming: Soken and Yoshi-P confirmed they'd like to release Ul'dah and Gridania mixes. Click here to listen to Limsa Lominsa / La Noscea one
• Materia system will undergo a revamp; details will be unveiled before beta test phase 3 starts
• Legacy players: before the beta test starts, your beta registration code will be sent to the e-mail address registered with your Square Enix Account
• "We're planning to add an even more life-like feel to NPCs": learn more here
• Chat font size, notification sounds and other UI tweaks: click
• Interview on Connect! On March issue, translated by AkiRouscelia (ty!): click

Final Fantasy XIV first Developers' Commentary video coming soon

Pinurabi lets us know, in a new Developers' blog post, that they are recording the first Developers' Commentary video. He's also talking about an object Yoshi-P, FFXIV producer, is holding in his hands in the pic below, but that we aren't able to see since the camera is behind him.

"You'll have to figure it out from the photo below!" -maybe a controller? A Playstation Vita? A smartphone? Pinurabi says he's "afraid we can't reveal any details at the moment. Please wait until the video goes live!"

Also, in the picture you can have a look at a cute baby chocobo and a different action bar layout from the PC alpha one: actually, it's the same found in FFXIV PS3 screenshots, so yes... probably that "object" is a PC or PS3 controller!